1000 Manat

Azerbaijan's manat was in rough shape by 2001. The currency had been devastated by hyperinflation through the 1990s — a legacy of post-Soviet economic collapse compounded by the costs of the Nagorno-Karabakh war — and 1000 manat represented a denomination that had essentially been inflated into everyday pocket change. This note belongs to a series the National Bank knew was temporary: a redenomination was already being discussed, and in 2006 the entire manat system was replaced at a rate of 5,000 old manat to 1 new manat.

A watermark as the sole mechanical security feature reflects the limited anti-counterfeiting infrastructure available during the early post-Soviet transition period.