10 000 Roubles

Transnistria's 1996 high-denomination issue came about because the territory's rouble, pegged to nothing and backed by a breakaway administration with no international recognition, was being consumed by inflation at a pace that made smaller notes functionally useless. The Pridnestrovian Republican Bank had been issuing coupon-style emergency currency since the early 1990s, and by 1996 the denominations had climbed to reflect an economy operating almost entirely on barter and Russian energy subsidies.

A watermark is the lone security concession on this note — unremarkable for a printing operation working under the constraints of an unrecognized state with limited access to specialist currency printers.