500 Tenge Goitered gazelle

Part of Kazakhstan's ongoing wildlife conservation series, this issue coincides with a period when the saiga antelope's cousin — the goitered gazelle, or Gazella subgutturosa — faced significant population pressure across Central Asia from poaching and habitat fragmentation following Soviet-era land-use collapse. Kazakhstan has been among the few post-Soviet states to legislate protected zones for the species with any consistency.

KM#61 is a moderately low-mintage collector piece with no known circulation use — issued purely for the numismatic market at a time when the National Bank of Kazakhstan was aggressively expanding its commemorative program.