5 Kopecks

Transnistria's aluminum coinage of 2005 replaced an earlier plastic token series — one of the more unusual monetary experiments of the post-Soviet collapse. The unrecognized republic, squeezed between Moldova and Ukraine and backed militarily by Russia's 14th Army, has never gained UN membership, which creates genuine ambiguity about the legal standing of its currency under international law. The switch to metal was partly a matter of durability, the plastic coins having degraded badly in circulation.