Catalog
200 Tengas Treasury
| Issuer | Emirate of Bukhara |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Currency | Tenga (1801-1920) |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of a gold crescent and six-pointed star set within a plain field, surrounded by a border composed of multiple rectangular cartouches carrying Arabic, Cyrillic, and numeral inscriptions in red, blue, green, and black letterpress printing. The denomination '200' appears in Cyrillic script at lower left and lower right corners, with corresponding Arabic numerals and further Arabic-script panels distributed across the note in a symmetrical layout. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central gold crescent and star vignette positioned in the upper centre, flanked symmetrically by two large oval cartouches with Arabic inscriptions in orange-yellow ink. The lower centre carries a prominent rectangular black-printed Arabic text panel, with Cyrillic 'ДВѢСТИ ТЕНЬ ГОВЪ' and numeral '200' cartouches repeated in red at the lower corners, and smaller Arabic and numeral panels arranged along the upper border. |
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| Comments |
Bukhara's paper currency was a product of extreme political instability. The Emirate had been a Russian protectorate since 1873, and by 1919 the emir, Alim Khan, was caught between Bolshevik pressure from the north and internal rebellion. These treasury notes were issued under those conditions — not as a functioning monetary instrument backed by reserves, but as an emergency measure to meet basic expenditures when the traditional monetary system was collapsing.
The Red Army overthrew the emirate in September 1920, and the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic that replaced it issued its own currency within months. Notes from the Alim Khan period had an extremely short window of legitimate use, and many were simply discarded or destroyed after the transition.