1000 Roubles

Khorezm — the short-lived Soviet satellite carved out of the former Khanate of Khiva in 1920 — issued its own currency almost immediately after the People's Republic was proclaimed, partly as an assertion of nominal independence from Moscow, partly out of sheer logistical necessity given the region's isolation east of the Aral Sea. The 1000 Rouble denomination in this series is among the more unusual emission substrates in Central Asian notaphily: actual silk cloth rather than paper, a material choice rooted in local textile tradition and the chronic unavailability of suitable printing paper in the region at the time.

Khorezm was absorbed into the Soviet system by 1923, and its currency became worthless almost immediately. Silk notes survived at higher rates than their paper counterparts simply because the cloth was worth preserving for other purposes.