Biggest Turkmen Banknote to Carry Image of Late President

Preparations are under way for the denomination of Turkmenistan’s national currency, the manat, Turkmen state-owned TV’s Altyn Asyr TV channel reported on 8 September.

“New series of banknotes and coins of the national currency will be introduced as of 1 January 2009 with 5,000 current manats equaling to one new denominated manat,” the report said, adding that images of “great historical personalities and historical- architectural monuments, which glorify Turkmen people, will be depicted on the new banknotes”.

Previous manats, introduced in 1993, during the rule of late Saparmyrat Nyyazow, all carried his own images. New manats, as TV report said, will bear images of medieval Turkmen rulers and warlords. However, as TV showed, the 500-manat new banknote carries late Saparmyrat Nyyazow’s image on the front side.

(Duration is about four minutes; no further processing)

Originally published by Turkmen TV Altyn Asyr channel, Asgabat, in Turkmen 1600 8 Sep 08.

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