500 Tenge Coin of Saraijuk

Saraijuk (also rendered Saraychik) was the principal city of the Golden Horde on the lower Ural River and a major node on the overland Silk Road routes through the Eurasian steppe. It was effectively destroyed by Nogai raids in the 1590s and never rebuilt, leaving almost nothing above ground. Kazakhstan's commemorative program has returned repeatedly to pre-Russian steppe history as a deliberate assertion of deep civilizational roots on the territory.

The blackened silver center is a production technique associated with the Berne-based Swissmint contract work common in Kazakh commemoratives of this period.