20 Roubles Valentina Tereshkova

Transnistria — the narrow strip of land between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border, unrecognized by any United Nations member state — issues collector coinage through its Republican Bank as a matter of soft diplomacy and revenue, with no pretense of broad circulation. This piece honors Tereshkova's 1963 Vostok 6 mission, which made her the first woman in space and remains, to this day, the only solo spaceflight by a woman ever completed.

The Soviet space program's decision to fly her was partly political theater, timed to upstage any American plans for a female astronaut — a follow-up female mission was canceled shortly after.