10 Som Farewell Gulsary

Issued to commemorate Chingiz Aitmatov's 1966 novel Farewell, Gulsary!, this coin appeared the year after the author's death in 2008. Aitmatov remains the most internationally recognized writer ever produced by Kyrgyzstan — his works were translated into over 170 languages during the Soviet period, an almost unheard-of reach for a writer working in both Kyrgyz and Russian simultaneously. The National Bank had previously honored him on paper currency while he was still alive.