50 Tenge Abai

Abai Qunanbaiuly, the 19th-century Kazakh poet and composer whose work forms the backbone of modern Kazakh literary identity, was born in 1845 in what is now East Kazakhstan Region. Kazakhstan has issued multiple commemorative pieces honoring him, but this 2015 copper-nickel issue marks the 170th anniversary of his birth — a figure significant enough in the national calendar to warrant a dedicated circulation-quality strike rather than a precious-metal commemorative.