Uzbekistan First Sum
The currency catalogued here as Uzbekistan First Sum was the 1993–1994 sum-coupon, a short transitional monetary unit introduced after the ruble period and replaced by the permanent Uzbek sum at a rate of 1,000 to one.
Quick Facts
The Story of the Uzbekistan First Sum
Uzbekistan introduced the sum-coupon on 15 November 1993 as an interim national currency. It entered circulation at parity with the Russian ruble and initially formed part of the transition away from the post-Soviet ruble area.
From 1 January 1994 the sum-coupon became the only legal tender in Uzbekistan after Soviet and Russian ruble banknotes were removed from domestic circulation. Its role was explicitly temporary: the Central Bank describes it as an intermediate currency used while the country prepared its permanent national monetary system.
The principal banknote family is dated 1992 but was introduced on 15 November 1993. Harrison & Sons in the United Kingdom printed denominations from 1 to 10,000 sum, all without signatures. The notes remained in use for less than a year, creating a clear separation between their printed date and their actual circulation period.
On 1 July 1994 Uzbekistan introduced the permanent sum at a conversion rate of one new sum to 1,000 sum-coupons. The First Sum therefore forms a distinct catalogue entity between the ruble period and the modern UZS currency, rather than an early date variety of the present monetary unit.
Design & Symbolism
The First Sum family is unusually consistent. Every denomination places the coat of arms of Uzbekistan on the obverse and the Sher-Dor Madrasah of the Registan in Samarkand on the reverse, creating one unified visual programme across the entire series.
Denominations from 1 to 25 sum use the smaller 122 × 60 mm format, while 50 through 10,000 sum use a larger 145 × 70 mm format. Colour changes identify denominations, but the core composition remains stable and there is no security thread.
A cotton boll and flower watermark runs through the family, tying the notes to one of Uzbekistan’s major agricultural symbols. On the 10,000-sum denomination the watermark exists in crude and refined forms, creating an important production variety within an otherwise highly standardized design.
Serial-number production provides another layer of variation. The 500-sum note exists with large ink-jet and smaller letterpress serials; the 1,000-sum note varies in prefix-to-serial size; and the 5,000-sum denomination has distinct serial-number font heights. These technical differences are central to precise attribution.
For collectors
The first rule is chronological: a 1992 date on the note does not mean a 1992 circulation issue. The entire banknote family entered use on 15 November 1993 and belongs to the brief sum-coupon period that ended with the 1994 reform.
A basic type set can be built by denomination from 1 through 10,000 sum, including the unusual 3-sum value. Because the artwork is deliberately uniform, denomination, size, colour and prefix are more useful identifiers than motif changes.
Specialist study should record prefix, replacement prefix, serial-printing method and font variety. The 500-, 1,000-, 5,000- and 10,000-sum notes are particularly useful for this approach because their catalogue varieties are defined by serial typography or watermark execution rather than by new artwork.
Uzbekistan First Sum and Uzbekistan Sum should remain separate Currency entities. The official 1,000-to-one conversion on 1 July 1994 marks a genuine monetary reform, while the short circulation period and Harrison-printed design family give the sum-coupon its own coherent collecting structure.
Introduced on 15 November 1993 at parity with the Russian ruble; replaced on 1 July 1994 at 1 new sum = 1,000 sum-coupons.
