Banknote Database made by collectors, for collectors
The Golden Horde
August 3, 2024 @ 19:51
Mongolia began issuing currency in 1921 with 6 revaluations and reforms since. From 1939 to 1993, for the entire period of Communism in the country, every banknote featured a portrait of Damdin Sukhbaatar. Sukhbaatar had led the revolution of 1921 and was depicted in a military outfit looking very serious. This reinforced the imagery of a single party communist government. Banknotes were printed in the Soviet Union during that period, and used the Cyrillic alphabet more prominently than the Mongolian. The country transitioned into a market based economic model beginning in 1990 and fairly soon after that new banknotes were required.
Sukhbataar on pre-1993 banknotes featured a military, or revolutionary, bearing. On the right, since 1993 his image is more cultural in appearance.
The current designs were introduced in 1993 and have been continually improved upon from a security perspective. Leaning heavily on the country's past and nationalism the new series of banknotes were originally to feature the Khans Ögodei, Güyük, Möngke, Kublai in addition to Genghis. Eventually only Genghis and Sukhbaatar were shown. There just weren't any portraits of the others, and barely one of Genghis. Sukhbaatar had his portrait changed to one based on a photo taken in 1923 while he was wearing a traditional outfit and hat. This had the effect of removing military imagery from the currency while harkening back to tradition Mongolian culture. It also carefully balanced the imagery to reflect the significant portion of the population that still looked back to the Communist revolution with reverence. The reverses, with the exception of some horses in a field, called to memory the Golden Horde period in the country. To say that the banknotes showing Genghis Khan are themed around him is an understatement. All of the discrete imagery on the obverse sides is somehow related to him.
The new design ideas were approved by the state parliament in 1992 and the currency creation was overseen by politician G. Tomurbaatar and artist Migid Butemez. Butemez had trained in Prague in the 60s and spent most of his life creating steppe-communist style art, he died in 2020. After a short search for a printer, the designs were drawn on computers by Terry Botwick at De La Rue in England. No contemporary portraits of Genghis Khan survive, and the view of him on the banknotes is a loose interpretation of a later painting made in China. Often when banks don't know what subjects looked like, they'd have a person sit for a portrait (Hungary famously did this) but it's unknown if Genghis Khan's model was someone pulled off the street in 1993 because of a passing resemblance. The currency redesign did away with the communist and atheist aesthetic and leaned into the country's Golden Horde-era history by featuring the national Soyombo symbol. The Geregee, or Golden Paiza of Genghis Khan is shown towards the right. The Paiza, a tablet with rounded edges, is now on display at the United Nations. Towards the left is the trident-topped Tug, or banner, standing outside of Genghis Khan's mausoleum. The blocky pattern going down the staff is not simply a design element but the word "Mongolia" written in the folded script used during the Golden Horde era. From 2019, Genghis Khan features on the top 4 denominations of Tögrög, while 1921 revolutionary leader Damdin Sukhbaatar is on the lower two. While Genghis Khan is remembered around the world for directing his armies to do unspeakably horrible things, he's still admired in Mongolia as the symbol of a golden age. I mean, the Chinese built a whole wall and everything.
Genghis Khan features on denominations above 500. His staff is on the left with the text "Mongolia" in folded script, while his paiza stone is on the right complete with a circular hole. The staff itself is modeled on the light and flag poles in front of the Genghis Khan mausoleum in Ordos.
The reverse sides of each denomination feature imagery almost wholly related to the 13th century Golden Horde era. On the left is detail from the 500 Togrog note showing an oxen train carrying a yurt. On the right the reverse of the 10,000 showing a fountain at Karakorum sourced from Pierre de Bergeron’s Voyages faits principalement en Asie (1735). It featured an angel on top, curious imagery on a banknote in a country that is only about 1% Christian.
Currently the banknotes feature several alphabets. The folded and traditional Mongolian script, Cyrillic on the reverses, and latin script in microprint on the obverse. Once printed only in Russia, they're now printed in France, the UK, and Germany as well.
The country introduced a 20,000 Tögrög note in 2006 but failed to introduce any meaningful security features with it, so it was commonly counterfeited. It was withdrawn in March 2020 (probably not the most interesting thing to happen that month). Mongolians have a love/hate relationship with their banknotes, with the government having to put up signs to stop people from throwing out the smaller notes or placing them under rock shrines called ovookhoi as offerings. Many save the smaller denominations, 500 Tögrög or under, for beggars; or in ger districts where for water where one litre costs only 2 Tögrög. Like many developing nations, US Dollars and Euros are eagerly accepted in the capital.