5000 Tengas Treasury

Bukhara's paper currency problems in the late imperial and revolutionary period were severe. The emirate had no modern printing infrastructure, and the notes issued under Emir Alim Khan in 1919 were produced under conditions of acute political pressure — the Bolsheviks were tightening their grip on Central Asia, and the emir's government would collapse entirely by September 1920 when the Red Army took Bukhara and the emirate ceased to exist.

Pick 18 belongs to a series that circulated for an extraordinarily brief window. Notes from this issue are frequently found with significant handling wear, reflecting genuine use in a collapsing economy rather than institutional hoarding.