10 Kopecks

Transnistria — the narrow strip of land between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border — has issued its own coinage since the early 2000s despite lacking recognition from any United Nations member state. The 2005 aluminium series replaced an earlier plastic token coinage, itself one of the more unusual monetary experiments in post-Soviet history; the plastic pieces had been introduced partly because metal was scarce and partly because the breakaway republic's industrial base, centered on the Cuciurgan power station and the Rîbnița steel works, was producing little of immediate use to a mint.

The aluminium issues were struck in limited quantities for a population of under half a million.