Turkmenistan: post-Soviet coinage

[<k>]

DESIGN OF THE 2009 / 2010 SET



Motifs on the coins of 2009.

This set had a common obverse design.

However, the reverse designs were rather unusual.

Each showed a set of motifs.


These motifs appeared at the bottom of the outer circle.

An equal number appeared at either side of the year.

Interestingly, their number varies on different reverses: 4, 6, 10.

I call such decorations rim devices or rim ornaments.

Usually these small ornaments have some significance.

They usually act as some sort of symbol.

However, in this case they are without significance.

They are merely decorative.


I do not know of any similar set.

It features different types of rim ornaments as reverse designs.

These are not the normal large pictorial designs.

Does any member know of any similar set of designs?

See:  Coins with rim devices.

[<k>]

METALS OF THE 2009 SET

The 1, 2 and 5 tenge coins are in nickel-plated steel.

The 10, 20 and 50 tenge coins made of nickel-brass.


The metal colours correspond to the number of denomination digits.

"White" for single digits and yellow for double digits.

See:  Coin tiers: metal colours according to number of denomination digits.

[<k>]

CONCLUSION

Turkmenistan has produced two well-defined coin series.

Motifs have been a prominent theme of both sets.


No new coin types have been produced since 2010.

Do coins still circulate in Turkmenistan?

Are the old coins minted with frozen dates?

[NewHikaru089]

Typical of coins issued in dictatorships like Turkmenistan, the first coins of post-independence Turkmenistan were reflective of Sapamurat Niyazov's own cult of personality. Images of him were omnipresent in Turkmenistan during that time, even on currency. North Korea may have created an effective cult of personality around the Kims, but this pales in comparison to the bizarre worship of Turkmenbashi.

[Figleaf]

NewHikari is quite correct. The first set you discuss pictures a weird dictator, Saparmyat Nyyazow, who insisted to be called Türkmenbashi. Like Kim (and Mao), he had his own personality cult book, Ruhnama (book of the soul), which he insisted should be treated on an equal level with the Quran.

The Guiness book of records noted that the capital, Achgabat, is the city with the largest number of marble gable buildings per square kilometer in the world, thanks to a large number of pharaonic projects, now largely unused, like the Olympic village (Turkmenistan has never even been a candidate to organise the Olympic games) near a number of sports venues several sizes too large for Turkmenistan.

The second series was struck under the second president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, as Nyyazow died in 2006. Berdi did away or softened many of Nyyazow's "reforms" - like turning off the largest fountain in the world in a country that is 80% desert, but kept the ones that made him all powerful dictator. The supercharged nationalism is still visible on the coins, but they no longer have a presidential portrait. Somewhat weirdly, this Turkmen Augustus has made his son Serdar Caesar.

Turkmenistan is still a Soviet style dictatorship. You may expect more similar coins.

Peter