1000 Manat Saparmyrat Niyazov

Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled Turkmenistan under the self-bestowed title Turkmenbashi — "Father of all Turkmens" — died in December 2006, making this 2007 issue a posthumous commemorative struck under his successor Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Niyazov had renamed months of the year after himself and family members, banned opera, and erected a gold-plated rotating statue of himself in Ashgabat that tracked the sun.

The Central Bank issued this coin while the country was quietly dismantling some of his more extreme personality cult legislation — an awkward political moment for a commemorative bearing his likeness.