1000 Manat Great Bustard

The great bustard (Otis tarda) was declared the national bird of Turkmenistan, a distinction that elevated it to official numismatic subjects alongside the country's aggressive gold coin program of the mid-2000s — a period when Saparmurat Niyazov's government was channeling hydrocarbon revenues into elaborate state symbolism. Niyazov died in December 2006, the same year this coin was struck, making issues from this year transitional artifacts of one of the most idiosyncratic personality cults in post-Soviet history.

The great bustard population across Central Asia had declined sharply due to habitat loss and hunting pressure, which lent the bird's official status a certain irony.