1 Manat

The first banknote issued by an independent Turkmenistan, this 1 Manat was part of the inaugural series printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company — an Ottawa firm that secured a significant share of post-Soviet central Asian printing contracts in the early 1990s as newly sovereign states scrambled to establish currencies. Turkmenistan had only formally introduced the manat in November 1993, replacing Soviet rubles at a rate of 500 rubles to 1 manat.

The watermark is the sole security feature — modest by any measure, but not unusual for a first issue produced under considerable time pressure.