20 Roubles The Fisherman and the Fish

Part of Belarus's long-running folklore and fairy tale series, this piece draws on Pushkin's 1833 verse tale "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish," itself adapted from a story collected by the Brothers Grimm. The rectangular format — unusual enough in silver issues of this weight class — was a deliberate choice by the National Bank to accommodate narrative scene work across a wider striking surface. Belarus issued numerous shaped and oversized pieces throughout the 2000s as the collector market for novelty formats expanded aggressively in Eastern Europe.