The History of the Kazakhstan Tenge

The Kazakhstani Tenge is a relatively new currency compared to others. It was introduced in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union which it was a member of. The dissolution of the USSR took place in 1991. There were a few years in between where some members of the former USSR wanted to keep a common currency but, eventually everyone went their own ways as you can see today if you are an avid banknote collector. Nowadays everyone has their own national currency. The first Tenge banknotes ranged in denominations from 1 – 50 Tiyn and 1 – 100 Tenge. All of the banknotes were rather colorful and they features portraits of historical and cultural figures as well as landscapes and important structures. The 3 Tenge features a portrait of Suinbai Aronuly a famous poet on the front and on the back is an image of a mountain range.

The style of the Tenge can be compared to that of the Uzbekistan Som and Azerbaijan Manat. As time went on larger denominations than the original ones began to circulate. The 100 Tenge went all the way up to 10,000 ₸. This 10,000 ₸ banknote was released in 2003. Also, in 2006 a newly designed series was put into circulation. They ranged from 200 – 10,000 ₸. These new designs are very modern, abstract and artistic designs. Also, they no longer feature images of figures, only images of sites, infrastructure and symbols. In 2011 a new series of banknotes were released with upgraded security features. The largest denomination went up to 20,000 ₸ as the new highes denomination.