The national currency of Kazakhstan is tenge. It was put into circulation on November 15, 1993. An interesting fact is that Kazakhstan was one of the last republics of the collapsed Soviet Union to use the national currency. There are codes KZT and 398 to represent tenge on the international market.
The name of the currency comes from the small silver coins “dengue”, which were used by the Turks in the Middle Ages.
For the first time, banknotes and coins were exchanged for tenge in Russian and Soviet rubles in the ratio of 1 tenge equal to 500 rubles. It is noteworthy that the first batch of tenge was printed in Great Britain, and the first coins were produced in Germany. Nowadays, the Banknote Factory of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, opened in 1995, is engaged in the issue of banknotes.
Today in circulation there are banknotes of 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10,000, 20,000 tenge. Coins are presented in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 tenge. The banknotes depict the state emblem and flag of Kazakhstan, as well as the outline of the country map with famous and important monuments and sights.
You can pay with credit cards at most restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, and travel agencies. You can safely make payments with Visa and Mastercard. But it should be noted that in bazaars, in small shops and cafes, cards will not always be accepted.
As for ATMs, they are found almost everywhere in all cities of the country. Most ATMs in Kazakhstan allow you to withdraw funds only in the national currency tenge. However, in large cities like Astana and Almaty ATM machines allowing customers to withdraw US dollars can be found.
It is relatively easy to exchange foreign currency. There are many banks and exchange offices offering favorable rates for exchanging money. They are more likely to accept US dollars, British pounds, euros and Russian rubles. In some of them, you can also exchange Chinese yuan and Kyrgyz som for the tenge.
