100 Somoni Parliament

Issued to mark the fifteenth anniversary of Tajikistan's independence, this piece was struck while the country was still consolidating political stability following one of the most destructive civil wars in post-Soviet history — a conflict that killed an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people between 1992 and 1997 and left the national economy in ruins. The parliament commemorated here had only been functioning under the 1994 constitution for roughly a decade when this coin was produced.

Tajikistan's gold coinage program in this period was modest in scope, with most commemorative issues produced in very limited numbers for collector distribution rather than circulation.