Museum marked tenge birthday: Back to 1USD=4.75KZT times

By Tamara Sukhomlinova

The regional museum of local lore hosted a money exhibition devoted to the 20th anniversary of the Kazakh currency. 

Here were ancient coins found by archaeologists in the ancient town of Saraichik, one of them struck in the city of Ukek in the times of Mengu-Timur Khan. 

Many schoolchildren attended the event - the new generation which either does not remember or came after the harsh period following the establishment of tenge on November 15, 1993. 

They, therefore, watched the old tenges and tiyins (1 tenge = 100 tiyin) with utmost interest. 

The first notes were printed in England. When money changed in 1993, they would give 1 tenge for 500 Soviet rubles in Kazakhstan. 1 dollar would cost 4.75 tenge then. The first Kazakh tiyins were on paper, but soon were replaced with metal coins as they would wear out quickly. Kazakhstan started printing its money at its own mint in 1995, says Aigul Ramazanova, a museum employee.