50 Roubles Buryatia

Part of Russia's ongoing "Regions of the Russian Federation" bimetallic series, which has run since 2005 and eventually encompassed all 85 federal subjects. Buryatia, a republic bordering Mongolia on the southeastern shore of Lake Baikal, was incorporated into the Russian state through a series of treaties with Buryat tribal leaders in the 1620s and 1630s — among the earliest indigenous peoples of Siberia to formally enter Russian jurisdiction. The republic holds one of the largest Buddhist populations in Russia, a demographic detail that made it a subject of particular Soviet-era suppression and post-1991 religious revival.