1 Rouble Russian sturgeon

Transnistria's wildlife rouble series, issued by a central bank of a state unrecognised by any UN member, occupies a genuinely odd corner of modern numismatics. The Transnistrian rouble has no legal tender status outside the territory — a narrow strip along the eastern bank of the Dniester that declared independence from Moldova in 1990, triggering a brief armed conflict in 1992 that ended in a ceasefire no formal peace treaty has since replaced.

The sturgeon depicted belongs to a species that once dominated Dniester catches before Soviet-era damming and industrial pollution collapsed regional populations.