25 Zarin Issa Pliyev

South Ossetia has no internationally recognized central bank in any functional sense — the "National Bank of South Ossetia" operates in a territory whose independence is acknowledged by fewer than a handful of UN member states, and its numismatic output is aimed squarely at the collector market rather than circulation. These issues are produced under contract by foreign mints and sold abroad.

Issa Pliyev commanded Soviet forces during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis as head of the Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba — notably, he had authority to deploy tactical nuclear weapons without direct Moscow approval, a fact not publicly confirmed until decades after the crisis.