50 Roubles Amur Tiger

Part of Russia's first sustained wildlife conservation coinage program, this issue appeared the same year the wild Amur tiger population was estimated at fewer than 400 individuals — a number that had collapsed from several thousand in the early twentieth century due to hunting and habitat loss in Primorsky Krai. The Russian government had banned tiger hunting in 1947, but poaching pressure intensified sharply after the Soviet collapse left wildlife enforcement agencies underfunded and border controls porous.

The .999 fineness was a deliberate departure from the Soviet-era standard of .900, signaling the new Central Bank's intent to compete directly in the international bullion collector market.