500 Somoni National Library

Tajikistan's National Library in Dushanbe was constructed largely with Chinese financing and opened in 2012, part of a broader infrastructure push that also included the country's tallest flagpole — at the time of its completion, the tallest in the world. The commemorative program surrounding national institutions accelerated sharply after 2010 as the government of Emomali Rahmon used coinage and architectural monuments to consolidate a national identity in a country barely two decades removed from a devastating civil war that killed an estimated 50,000 people.

KM#42 is one of several silver issues from this period struck to proof standard at foreign mints under contract.