500 Roubles

Transnistria's 1993 rouble series was issued by a state that no country recognises — the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic declared independence from Moldova in 1990 following armed conflict, and has maintained a separate currency ever since. The Republican Bank operates as a functioning central bank for a population of roughly 400,000, despite the territory's unresolved legal status under international law.

The 1993 dated issues replaced the provisional coupon stamps affixed to Soviet roubles that the region had used as a stopgap during the immediate post-Soviet period. A watermark is the sole security provision — modest even by the standards of the early 1990s transitional issues flooding out of former Soviet republics at the time.