Mongolian Tugrik (MNT)

The Bank of Mongolia (Mongolbank) functions as the country's central monetary authority, responsible for issuing banknotes, overseeing monetary policy, and maintaining financial stability. Originally founded in 1924 as the Mongolian Trade and Industrial Bank (a joint venture with the Soviet Union), the institution was renamed Bank of Mongolia in 1954. The bank occasionally intervenes to stabilize exchange rates, though it generally allows market forces to determine the tugrik's value. When sending money to Mongolia, transfers convert at rates influenced by both official policy and market dynamics.

The Tugrik entered circulation on December 9, 1925, at parity with the Soviet ruble (one ruble or tugrik equaling 18 grams of silver). By April 1, 1928, it had replaced the Mongolian dollar entirely as the sole legal tender. The word tögrög means circle or circular object — a reference to coins — and today survives mainly in the currency context (with the exception of tögrög sar, meaning full moon). During the socialist era, tugrik banknotes closely resembled Soviet rubles in color and design. Modern notes are printed in the United Kingdom, a shift from the Soviet-era printing origins.

Mongolian banknotes feature vivid historical imagery, with Genghis Khan appearing on the ₮500, ₮1,000, ₮5,000, and ₮10,000 notes — a near-universal presence honoring the founder of the Mongol Empire. Other notes depict his tent, horses, horsehair tails, and the national Soyombo symbol. The revolutionary leader Sükhbaatar (founder of the Mongolian People's Republic) appears on lower denominations. Collector interest runs high — a 2007 commemorative ₮500 coin featuring John F. Kennedy includes a button that plays a clip of his famous Berliner speech (one of the world's few talking coins).

The symbol ₮ represents the Tugrik in Unicode (U+20AE), featuring a capital T crossed by two horizontal strokes — following the convention of currency symbols like the dollar ($) or yen (¥). The etymology runs deep: Genghis Khan's 13th-century empire issued one of the world's earliest forms of paper currency, laying the groundwork for Mongolia's monetary tradition. The subunit möngö (meaning silver in Mongolian) has fallen out of practical use due to inflation — the lowest circulating denominations today are the ₮1, ₮5, ₮10 notes, while coins are available in ₮20, ₮50, ₮100, ₮200 and ₮500 denominations.