On 5 September 2017, people queued at a branch of the National Bank of Uzbekistan in Tashkent to exchange currency. A Reuters photograph identifies the city, date and purpose of the line. It was the day the government eased long-standing currency controls and expanded exchange at the official rate.
The policy change appeared not only in regulations and exchange-rate figures but in the movement of people toward banks. Those buying and selling dollars gathered at legal counters and waited their turn. The queue recorded citizens' first practical encounter with a new system after years in which official and unofficial currency markets had existed side by side.