20 Roubles Sergei Korolev

Korolev spent years in a Stalinist gulag after a 1938 denunciation — likely by rivals within the Soviet aerospace program — and was only released to lead rocket development because the state needed him more than it wanted him punished. He died in 1966 without the Nobel Committee ever learning his name; the USSR kept his identity classified, and since the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, he was never eligible once he was gone. Transnistria, unrecognized by the United Nations and operating its own parallel monetary system since 1992, has issued commemorative silver with more ambition than most acknowledged states.