500 Tenge Coin of Almaty

Issued as part of Kazakhstan's long-running "Cities" commemorative program, this piece honors Almaty — the country's largest city and former capital, which lost its official status to Astana in 1997 following a controversial presidential decree by Nursultan Nazarbayev. The relocation was driven partly by Nazarbayev's desire to shift political gravity northward, away from a city with strong Soviet-era administrative inertia.

The blackened silver center is achieved through chemical oxidation applied selectively after striking, a technique the National Bank employed across several issues in this period to create tonal contrast without enamel or plating.