20 Roubles The Belts of Slutsk. Weaving

The Slutsk belt is one of the most celebrated artifacts of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth material culture — wide silk sashes worn by szlachta nobility, woven with gold and silver thread in workshops that flourished in Slutsk (then part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) from the mid-18th century onward. The Radziwiłł-sponsored manufactory established there around 1758 produced belts so technically demanding that a single piece could take months to complete and cost as much as a small estate.

By the 19th century the tradition had largely died out, surviving mainly in museum collections. Belarus has pursued its revival aggressively since independence, and the craft was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2012 — the year before this coin was issued.