1 Som Yurt

The Kyrgyz som was introduced in May 1993, replacing the Soviet ruble after the republic's independence, and the National Bank has since issued a series of coins celebrating traditional nomadic architecture — the yurt being the most culturally central. The 2018 issue falls within a broader commemorative program that began in the early 2000s, reflecting the government's sustained effort to anchor national identity to pre-Soviet pastoral heritage rather than the Soviet iconography that dominated the region for seven decades.