Uzbekistani Som - First Som

First Som

Like other republics of the former Soviet Union, Uzbekistan continued using Soviet/Russian ruble after independence. On July 26, 1993, a new series of Russian ruble was issued and old Soviet/Russian ruble ceased to be legal tender in Russia. Some successor states had their national currencies before the change, some chose to continue using the pre-1993 Soviet/Russian ruble, and some chose to use both the pre-1993 and the new Russian ruble. Tables of modern monetary history: Asia implies that both old and new rubles were used in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan replaced the ruble with som at par in on November 15, 1993. No subdivisions of this som were issued and only banknotes were produced, in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 5000, and 10000 som. Because it was meant to be a transitional currency, the design was rather simplistic. All notes had the Coat of arms on obverse, and Sher-Dor Madrasah of the Registan in Samarkand on reverse. They only differ in color and value.