5.000 Tengas / Ten'gov

The Emirate of Bukhara's paper currency was a late and reluctant concession to modern monetary practice. Emir Alim Khan, the last ruler of Bukhara, had long resisted replacing metal coinage with paper, and these notes were issued under acute pressure — the collapse of regional trade networks following the Russian Revolution had made silver and copper increasingly impossible to obtain in sufficient quantities for everyday exchange.

Pick 10A is among the rarer variants of the 1918 emission, distinguished by subtle typographic differences from the more commonly encountered 10B. Bukharan paper money of this period deteriorates badly in humid storage — foxing and brittleness are endemic to surviving examples, a direct consequence of the low-grade local paper stock used.