Currency - Tajikistani somoni

The Samani (cомонӣ,, ISO 4217 code: TJS) is the currency of Tajikistan. It is subdivided into 100 diram (дирам). The currency is named after the father of the Tajik nation, Ismail Samani (also spelled Ismoil Somoni).

The somoni was introduced on 30 October 2000; it replaced the Tajikistani ruble, at the rate of 1 somoni = 1000 rubles.

The currency is divided into 100 diram for one somoni. Diram banknotes were first introduced on 30 October 2000 to start the currency off and coins were introduced later in 2001 with the intention of creating a more efficient monetary system and gradually replacing the diram notes. This was also the first time circulating coins were introduced in Tajikistan.

Tajikistan

Tajikistan (, ; Тоҷикистон ), officially the Republic of Tajikistan (Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhuriyi Tojikiston), is a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia with an area of 143100 km2 and an estimated population of million people as of. It is bordered by Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east. The traditional homelands of the Tajik people include present-day Tajikistan as well as parts of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

The territory that now constitutes Tajikistan was previously home to several ancient cultures, including the city of Sarazm of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including the Oxus civilisation, Andronovo culture, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Islam. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid Empire, Sasanian Empire, Hephthalite Empire, Samanid Empire, Mongol Empire, Timurid dynasty, the Russian Empire, and subsequently the Soviet Union. Within the Soviet Union, the country's modern borders were drawn when it was part of Uzbekistan as an autonomous republic before becoming a full-fledged Soviet republic in 1929.