100 Roubles The Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Bendery

Transnistria declared independence from Moldova in 1990, but no United Nations member state recognizes it. The Transnistrian Republican Bank nonetheless operates a full central banking function, issuing currency and commemorative coins that circulate domestically and are treated as legal tender within the territory. This piece is among the earliest silver commemoratives the bank produced, issued just over a decade into a sovereignty the international community refuses to acknowledge.

The Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Bendery — also spelled Bender — survived Soviet-era pressure on religious institutions and the brief but bloody 1992 war between Transnistrian and Moldovan forces that left the city heavily contested.