20 Qəpik

Azerbaijan's first post-Soviet coinage was issued amid the early stages of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, a conflict that was actively consuming state resources and administrative capacity throughout 1992–93. The aluminum composition was a practical necessity — the newly independent republic had no established mint of its own and contracted production abroad under difficult economic conditions. The "a" suffix on the KM and Schön references distinguishes this aluminum issue from an earlier planned steel version that was abandoned before significant circulation.