5 Roubles The Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in Sergiyev Posad

Part of the Bank of Russia's early architectural commemorative series launched in 1993, this piece belongs to a run of copper-nickel five-rouble issues that appeared just as the Soviet monetary system had formally collapsed and the Russian Federation was establishing its own numismatic identity. The Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra — founded by Sergius of Radonezh in the 14th century — withstood closure and near-destruction under Soviet anti-religious campaigns; its monastery complex was seized in 1920 and not returned to the Russian Orthodox Church until 1946.