Precious – literally! – the exhibition was presented to the public by the National Bank (NB) of the republic. There was no shortage of those who wanted to learn more about the history of Kyrgyz currency. Young people were particularly curious. The guys literally bombarded the guides with questions on what paper and where the som is printed on, what degrees of protection it had, when a 20 som coin would appear, and many more. There were also tricky issues: how hard is it to fake a catfish, and how many such cases have been identified?
“We were not only told about the modern national currency, but also given a brief digression into history,” Nurzat Ishimova, a ninth-grade student from one of Bishkek’s schools, shared with the correspondent of RG. – The Great Silk Road passed through the territory of Kyrgyzstan, which means that trade with different countries flourished. I can imagine how caravans of camels laden with goods once roamed our city. It turns out that one of the first and most common coins of those ancient times was the turgesh – round coins of silver, copper or another metal with holes in them. They were strung on cords and worn around the neck. Then there was the money of Tsarist Russia, then the Soviet rubles appeared, and now Kyrgyzstan has its own monetary unit – the som.
By the way, according to the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic, the som was officially introduced into the territory of the republic at four in the morning on May 10, 1993. Kyrgyzstan became the first of the Central Asian republics to have of its own means of payment. The exchange rate was immediately fixed: one som was equal to two hundred rubles, and one dollar could be bought for four soms.
- In 1993, my first salary was only 28 soms, – said one of the visitors to the exhibition Zhibek Kurutova. – I was given a blue 20 som note and eight new red 1 som notes. They looked so weird and unusual back then. It even looked like the money was printed on regular thick paper. And in circulation there were banknotes of small denominations. Reds cost 1 tyiyn, greens cost 10 tyiyns, and blues cost 50 tyiyns. By the way, I still have several of these tickets somewhere at home. Many then reacted to the new money with some skepticism and even called them candy wrappers. Russian rubles were still in use and confidence in them was greater. The attitude towards the som changed when the banknotes of the next series appeared.
However,
In 2023, in honor of the anniversary of the national currency, the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic issues a new – fifth consecutive series – banknotes in denominations of 200, 500 and 1000 soms. On the front of the banknotes are portraits of representatives of art and culture, and on the back – views of Kyrgyzstan.
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