500 Tenge

Kazakhstan's first banknote series, introduced in November 1993 when the tenge replaced the Soviet ruble at a rate of 1 tenge to 500 rubles, was produced entirely by Harrison & Sons under considerable secrecy — the notes were printed and warehoused in Britain before the currency launch to prevent speculation and capital flight. The 1994 date on this denomination reflects a second print run as demand outpaced the initial supply.

Harrison & Sons had long supplied banknotes to former British colonial territories, but Kazakhstan was a new kind of client: a post-Soviet state building monetary infrastructure from scratch with no existing central bank printing capacity.