25 Roubles Russian Ballet

Russia's 1993 palladium issues occupy an odd moment in the country's monetary history — the Soviet coin program had collapsed along with the state itself, and the newly established Bank of Russia was simultaneously trying to generate hard currency and signal cultural continuity. Palladium was a practical choice: Russia held, and still holds, the world's largest palladium reserves, primarily from the Norilsk deposits in Siberia, making the metal both cheap to source and politically legible as a Russian commodity.

The series was produced in proof and uncirculated variants, hence the dual CBR reference numbers.