The Almas — Mongolian for "wild man" or "snowman" — occupies a specific place in Central Asian cryptozoological tradition, distinct from the Himalayan Yeti despite frequent conflation by Western sources. Mongolia issued a short series of coins on folkloric and cryptid subjects during the late 2000s, and this piece belongs to that run. The Almas is consistently described in Mongolian accounts as bipedal and ape-like, with reported sightings documented by Soviet-era expeditions into the Altai region as late as the 1970s.
The Almas — Mongolian for "wild man" or "snowman" — occupies a specific place in Central Asian cryptozoological tradition, distinct from the Himalayan Yeti despite frequent conflation by Western sources. Mongolia issued a short series of coins on folkloric and cryptid subjects during the late 2000s, and this piece belongs to that run. The Almas is consistently described in Mongolian accounts as bipedal and ape-like, with reported sightings documented by Soviet-era expeditions into the Altai region as late as the 1970s.