500 Manat Father - Atamurat Niyazov

Atamurat Niyazov — better known by the self-bestowed title Türkmenbaşy, "Father of all Turkmen" — commissioned this coin during the height of his personality cult, when his image adorned everything from vodka bottles to a rotating gold statue atop Ashgabat's Neutrality Arch. The 2002 date places it squarely in the period when he had renamed months of the calendar after himself and family members, and declared his 2001 book, the Ruhnama, a sacred national text alongside the Quran.

Coins of this type were issued for international numismatic markets rather than domestic circulation — Turkmenistan's population had little access to hard currency at the time.