5 Roubles The City of Uglich

Part of the Bank of Russia's long-running "Ancient Towns of Russia" series, this issue commemorates Uglich, a city on the Volga whose history is inseparable from one of the most politically charged deaths in Russian history — the 1591 death of Tsarevich Dmitry, Ivan the Terrible's youngest son, found with his throat cut in the kremlin courtyard. The official verdict of accidental self-inflicted injury during an epileptic seizure was almost universally disbelieved, and the subsequent riot killed several dozen townspeople whom Boris Godunov then had punished by exile to Siberia.

The bimetallic format — silver centre, gold ring — was used selectively across the series for issues deemed of particular historical weight.