500 Manat Akhal Mosque

The Akhal region's principal mosque was constructed under Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-styled "Türkmenbaşy," whose personality cult reshaped the country's architecture, currency, and public life throughout the 1990s. Niyazov placed his own image and the images of structures bearing his imprimatur on a remarkable volume of commemorative coinage during this period — this issue among them.

The 500 Manat denomination had negligible purchasing power by 2000, the manat having suffered severe inflation since independence in 1991.