500 Tenge Year of the Monkey

Kazakhstan's lunar series coins were struck under a licensing arrangement that positioned them squarely within the Chinese collector market, where demand for silver lunar issues from any sovereign mint commands reliable premiums. The 2016 Monkey issue arrived during a difficult year for the tenge — the National Bank had floated the currency in August 2015, triggering a 35% devaluation, which paradoxically boosted export appeal for hard-asset collectibles denominated in it.

Mintage for the series was tightly controlled, typically under 5,000 pieces per issue.