20 Roubles Tarpan

The tarpan — the Eurasian wild horse once ranging from the steppes of Poland to western Russia — was declared extinct in the wild by the late 19th century, with the last confirmed individual dying in captivity in 1909. Belarus has issued a number of silver pieces in recent decades documenting extinct and endangered fauna of the former Soviet ecological zone, and this coin fits squarely within that programme.

Debate persists among zoologists whether the tarpan was a true wild species or a feral descendant of domestic stock — a question that remains unresolved.