10 Qəpik

Azerbaijan declared independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991, but the first national coinage didn't reach circulation until 1992 — the manat series arriving as the country was already embroiled in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Struck in aluminium rather than the cupro-nickel typical of Soviet-era small change, the choice reflected both the economic disruption of the transition period and the raw material constraints facing a newly independent state.