KZT - Kazakhstani Tenge

The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK), headquartered in Almaty, serves as the country's monetary authority. President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the decree creating the Tenge on November 12, 1993, and the currency entered circulation three days later on November 15 — a date now celebrated as Kazakhstan's 'Day of National Currency.' The NBK manages monetary policy, issues banknotes through its Banknote Factory (opened 1995 in Almaty), and mints coins at the Kazakhstan Mint in Oskemen. When sending money to Kazakhstan, transfers convert at rates determined by daily trading on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.

The Tenge was introduced on November 15, 1993, replacing the Soviet/Russian ruble at a rate of 1 Tenge per 500 rubles. Kazakhstan was among the last former Soviet republics to leave the ruble zone, doing so only after Russia's July 1993 currency reform made the old Soviet notes invalid. A 'special group' of designers — Mendybay Alin, Timur Suleymenov, Asimsaly Duzelkhanov, and Khayrulla Gabzhalilov — created the first banknote series, which the British company Harrison & Sons printed (requiring 18 covert flights on IL-76 aircraft to transport the notes from London). The first coins were struck in Germany before domestic production began.

Kazakhstan's banknotes have won more international recognition than any other currency — the 1,000 Tenge commemorative note won the International Bank Note Society's 'Best Banknote' award in 2013, making Kazakhstan the first country to win three consecutive IBNS awards (2011, 2012, 2013). The 2006 'Baiterek' series introduced vertical obverse designs featuring the iconic Bayterek monument in Astana, the handprint and signature of President Nazarbayev, and fragments of the national anthem. A new 'Saka' series announced in 2023 will drop Russian-language text entirely, completing Kazakhstan's decades-long shift toward the Latin alphabet.

The symbol ₸ was approved on March 20, 2007, following a public competition announced by the National Bank. Designers Vadim Davydenko and Sanzhar Amirkhanov from Almaty won the ₸1,000,000 prize and the title 'parents of the tenge symbol.' The design combines a stylized 'T' with a horizontal line, evoking stability and balance. Unicode officially included the symbol at code point U+20B8 in August 2009. The word tenge derives from medieval Turkic silver coins called tanga or denge (meaning 'scale' or 'balance'), the same root that gives Russian its word for money: dengi.