5 Somoni Independence

Tajikistan's 5 somoni bimetallic was issued to mark fifteen years of independence following the Soviet dissolution in 1991 — a period that included a brutal civil war running from 1992 to 1997, which killed an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people and displaced nearly a million more. The somoni itself, introduced in 2000, replaced the Tajik ruble at a rate of 1,000 to one, closing the book on a decade of currency instability tied directly to that conflict.