20 Roubles Syomukha

Syomukha is a figure from Belarusian folklore — a seven-headed serpent antagonist appearing in regional fairy tales, distinct from but related to the Slavic Zmey tradition. Belarus launched an extended silver folklore series in the early 2000s as part of a deliberate cultural documentation effort following independence, commissioning artists to render oral-tradition characters that had never previously appeared on official coinage. The oxidized finish combined with the crystal inset was a production technique the Minsk mint refined across this series, applied to give the pieces a deliberately theatrical quality suited to their subject matter.