Ashraf AboArafe
Recently, the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan published a report on the statistics of cash settlements for the first half of the year. It turned out that the growth volume of non-cash transactions fell threefold. Have they started printing more paper banknotes in our country, and is cash popular as a payment instrument? The National Bank of Kazakhstan answered these questions for the Kazinform agency and told how the Kazakhstan Mint produces tenge.
The National Bank noted that despite the active development of the infrastructure of non-cash payments, the dynamics of cash in circulation demonstrates stable growth. The average annual growth rate of cash in circulation over the past 5 years was 9.9%.
“According to the results of a sociological study conducted by the National Bank, the share of the population that most often prefers cash payments is about 60%,” responds the press service of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
At the same time, the difference by regions of the country is significant: cash is used more often in Atyrau (81%), Pavlodar (77%), West Kazakhstan (74%) regions, and the least in Almaty (36%).
“The results of the study showed that cash retains its position as one of the important payment instruments among the population and economic entities,” the National Bank added.
The first batches of tenge came to Kazakhstan from Great Britain, and already in 1995, the country had its own factory. Now in Kazakhstan, tenge banknotes and coins are produced by the Banknote Factory in Almaty and the Kazakhstan Mint in Ust-Kamenogorsk.
The Mint is a particularly important state facility. It was established in 1992 and has various technological sections, including procurement, tool, galvanic, thermal, stamping and pressure processing sections, as well as auxiliary production and warehouses. The enterprise is equipped with high-performance equipment manufactured by leading companies in Germany and Switzerland. Admission of outsiders is strictly prohibited, and therefore the images were provided to us by the employees themselves.
The main objectives of the enterprise are to fulfill orders from the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan to produce national currency coins from non-ferrous metals, gold and silver (circulating, commemorative, collectible), as well as to fulfill orders from the Administration of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to produce state awards.
Today, the mint fully supplies Kazakhstan with change coins that are not inferior in their characteristics to those used, for example, in Europe or America.
According to the National Bank, more than 300 employees currently work at the Kazakhstan Mint, ensuring the continuous operation and development of this production facility.
“In order to ensure cash circulation in the country, the National Bank issues and withdraws cash daily through second-tier banks and “Kazpost” JSC (national postal service of Kazakhstan – editor’s note) in accordance with their requests. As of July 25, 2024, the total nominal value of banknotes and circulation coins issued into circulation in Kazakhstan amounted to 4.4 trillion tenge (of which: banknotes – 4.3 trillion tenge, coins – 100 billion tenge),” says the National Bank.
The process of making cash is a complex production cycle that includes design development, purchasing special materials (for example, banknotes – special paper, paints are purchased, blanks are produced), applying images and security elements, as well as other stages. Considering all stages of the production process, the production of banknotes can take up to one year. The production of coins takes up to 6 months on average.
The tenge coin series is represented by denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 200 tenge. Coins of 100 and 200 tenge are bicolor. These coins are made of white nickel silver alloy and yellow nibrass alloy. Coins of 50 tenge are made of nickel silver. Coins of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 tenge are made of steel coated with copper-nickel alloy. It should be noted that this method of producing circulation coins is practiced in many countries of the world. Raw materials (metal) to produce coins are purchased on the Kazakhstan and international markets depending on the quality characteristics of the metal and its cost.
Since the end of 2023, the National Bank has been working on the gradual release of a new series of banknotes “Saki Style” into circulation. The main differences of the new series are the change in the size of the banknotes and a significant improvement in the security complex. The specialists of the National Bank analyzed the sizes of banknotes in world practice. The results showed that the reduced size of banknotes is more convenient for counting, storing and transporting. This measure also speeds up and simplifies the production of banknotes due to the location of a larger number of banknotes on a banknote sheet. In addition, it is worth noting that the paper used to produce new banknotes, as in previous series of banknotes, consists of cotton. Its use is due to the need to produce durable paper that has high wear resistance and durability. These changes are aimed at improving the quality of banknotes, strengthening security elements and using the latest technologies in the production of banknotes.
