By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News January 12, 2010

There has been another wake-up call in a continuing trend among central banks as the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in central Asia recently announced it will replace a bank note with circulating coins of the same denominations.

In a Nov. 19 press conference National Bank of Kyrgyzstan Assistant Chairman Zair Chokoev predicted a savings of perhaps as much as 12 million euros (about $18 million U.S.) over a 10-year period when the notes are switched to coins. Chokoev acknowledged many countries are making similar changes, what he called the “life-in-service” of the coins simply being longer than that of a paper bank note of the same denomination.

According to Chokoev, about 25 million 10-som coins were to enter circulated on Dec. 1, 2009, the coins planned to fully replace the 10-som bank notes within two years by central bank estimates. The coins were struck at the Kazakhstan mint.

The word “som” means “pure” and implies “pure gold” in the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uyghur, Uzbek, and other Turkic languages. The word was used interchangeably with the word ruble regarding currency denomination values when Kyrgyzstan was part of the now defunct Soviet Union.

Kyrgyzstan’s currency system is based on 100 tiyin equal to one som. Paper bank notes in denominations of 1, 10, and 50 tyiyn and 1-, 5-, and 20-som bank notes were issued in 1993 by the Kyrgyzstan Bank soon after the new nation was born following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. A second series was issued in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 som the following year, with a third series issued in 1997 in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1,000 som. No coins were struck for circulation throughout this period.

In January 2008 brass-steel 1-, 10-, and 50-tyiyn and nickel-steel 1-, 3-, and 5-som coins were issued for circulation, this being followed by new 20-, 50-, and 100-som bank notes as well as a new denomination 5,000-som bank note in 2009. The 1-tyiyn coin was struck for collectors only, with a reported mintage of 100,000 coins. Each coin is dated 2008, depicts a coat of arms on one side, with the denomination on the other.

All circulation coins for Kyrgyzstan are struck at the Kazakhstan Mint, a mint that according to its official web site is “a republican state enterprise founded by the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”

According to Kazakhstan Mint Director Farit Tuganbaev, the mint was established by hiring skilled workers from the Ulba Metallurgical Plant, a nuclear material producer, while new the facility was modeled on similar mints in Germany, Switzerland, and other European countries.

According to Tuganbaev, “Today the mint meets in full the needs of Kazakhstan in circulating coins, which are highly competitive with the quality of those in Europe and America. The Kazakhstan Mint as well as other leading world mints manufactures prime proof quality collection gold and silver coins and unique one-kilo prime proof quality silver coins 100 millimeters in diameter. Only a few mints out of 58 in the world are able to manufacture such products. The experts at the most prestigious annual jewelry exhibition in Basel (Switzerland) acknowledged high quality of coins manufactured in Kazakhstan and confirmed their compliance with the world quality standards.”

The facility also produces badges, breastplates, commemorative medals, cutlery, jewelry, silver-composition contacts, souvenirs, and stamps. It was recognized in 1999 with a gold medal at the Siberia Export-Import Exhibition in Novosibirsk, as well as with an award in 2000 at the Siberia-Asia Cooperation Without Boundaries Exhibition in Barnaul.


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