100 Rublei, National Bank of Belarus, series 2000

By 2000 the hyperinflation of the 1990s had carried Belarusian notes into the millions, and the National Bank redenominated the rouble, striking three zeros from the currency and issuing a dignified new family dated "2000." This 100-rouble note belongs to that second series, which — like all its fellows — is built around a work of national architecture rather than a portrait.

The face shows the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre in Minsk, the great constructivist house of the 1930s that is the home of Belarusian opera and ballet. The back carries a scene from the ballet Vybrannitsa ("The Chosen One") by the composer Yauhen Hlebau (Y. Glebov), set on a subject from the poet Yanka Kupala, and the watermark is a ballerina — so the whole note is a tribute to the national stage.

Printed by Goznak in Moscow and secured with a solid thread, the note carries no officials' signatures. It remained legal tender through the 2000s until the 2016 redenomination, which once more struck three zeros from the rouble and retired the series.