The Central Bank of Uzbekistan issued new 2,000- and 20,000-som bank notes on June 14. They are equal to 19 cents and $1.90.

The two notes are new denominations joining the 1,000-, 5,000-, 10,000-, 50,000-, and 100,000-som notes. They are dedicated to the “Great Silk Road” and the history of the ancient city of Bukhara and the Republic of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in the country’s west.

The notes are printed on a security paper substrate with intaglio printing.

The 142- by 69-millimeter 2,000-som note is magenta and green in color. The watermark depicts a camel, to symbolize the Silk Road.

The left side of the face shows the Bukhara Ark fortress, built in the first century B.C and rebuilt in the ninth and 10th centuries. The upper left corner has the number “2000” printed with optically variable ink. Depending on viewing angle, the denomination changes color from gold to green. A special purple element in relief on the right and left edges is for people with low vision.

On the right side, against a light background, both notes have circles of different diameters that are printed in thin lines, which, when copied, give color and image distortion.

Against the background of the national fabric, khan-atlas silk, is a map of Uzbekistan, on which green lines show the directions of the caravan roads of the “Great Silk Road.” A two-humped camel, a symbol of the city of Bukhara, is at the top left. Its image performs the function of a register, serving to combine the “face” with the image on the back. When seen through light, the light part of the bank note is combined with the colored background on the back, forming a full image.

The back shows the ruins of the ancient city of Poikend, through which a caravan route passed in the third and fourth centuries B.C. On the right are wall stucco moldings dating to the eighth century B.C. and household utensils found in regional excavations, dating to the third millennium B.C.

The 20,000-som note measures 147 millimeters by 69 millimeters and is blue, purple, and brown in color.

The left side of the face has the Qo’Yqnirilgan Qal’a, a fourth century B.C. fortress in Karakalpakstan that was not discovered until the 1930s. The value changes from magenta to green, and the device to aid the visually impaired is blue.

The map with caravan routes is also on this note, but here the image at top left is part of a Karakalpakstani embroidered fabric pattern that is used as a register combining with the back to form a full image when seen through light.

The back shows the Archaeological Monument of Jombos Qala’a, dating from the fourth century B.C. On the right side there are images of archaeological finds in the form of a ceramic jug from the seventh to sixth centuries B.C., and a camel-shaped artifact from the first century B.C., that was used in the rituals of Zoroastrianism.

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