100 Tenge Latin

Kazakhstan's 2019 monetary reform replaced Cyrillic script on circulating coinage with Latin characters, part of a broader state-mandated alphabet transition announced by President Nazarbayev in 2017. The shift was politically charged — moving away from the Russian-influenced Cyrillic system toward a Latin script seen as aligning Kazakhstan culturally with Turkic-speaking nations and, implicitly, with Western orientation. The coin itself is a direct artifact of that policy, not a redesign driven by any numismatic consideration.

The Latin transition proved contentious enough that implementation deadlines were repeatedly pushed back through the early 2020s.