Deer (Bugy) proof-like

The deer Buǵy is one of the cult sacred animals in the beliefs of nomadic peoples. In the view of the proto-Turks this totem was treated as an ancestor and served as a symbol of the continuation of the line. The third coin of the series appeared on 30 December 2020: the National Bank issued the BUǴY with face values of 5,000, 500, 200 and 100 tenge. The silver coins are made using gilding technology and a diamond insert, and their obverse and reverse designs are identical; the proof-like cupronickel coin is gilded as well, while the brilliant uncirculated cupronickel coin is not.

The pictorial side shows the head of a deer with high branching antlers: the antlers occupy the upper part of the field and set the whole composition moving upwards, while the muzzle is given in profile with the characteristic line of the neck. The diamond insert is placed in the eye. One part of the head is modelled naturalistically, the other is reduced to a stencil and gilded, so that the deer is shown at once as a living animal and as a sign, a mask, the imprint of an ancient image. Above the head stands the inscription "BUǴY". A wide border with decorative elements runs around the perimeter; together with the antlers reaching upward it holds the image within the circle and keeps the composition from falling into separate parts.

Totems in primitive beliefs are animals that served as the object of the cult of a clan or tribe and were regarded as its forebears or guardians. According to historians, some Turkic leaders traced their descent to legendary ancestors born of a totem animal — in this way a clan legend turned a beast or a bird into the first ancestor of a whole people. For a nomad such kinship was not an abstract metaphor but a way of explaining where the clan came from and who answers for it before the sky: the totem is at once a relative and a protector. That is why the image of a totem animal on a coin is not decoration but a sign of protection, which the steppe tradition read without any explanation.

What all the coins of the series share is the union of a naturalistic and a stencilled view of the animal with an allegorical treatment in the Saka animal style: one part is shown as the animal, the other as a gilded mask with an element of mysticism. The illustrator is S. S. Maltsev. In the Saka tradition the figure of a beast is reduced to a sign: what matters is not fur or anatomy but silhouette, rhythm and repetition, so the naturalistic and the sign-like parts on one side read as two views of a single being — the living and the sacred.

The третья coin of the series appeared on 30 December 2020; this card covers the cupronickel, proof-like quality.

The coins are struck at the Kazakhstan Mint and issued in several versions: silver coins in a souvenir pack with a numbered certificate of quality of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the state, Russian and English languages, cupronickel coins of proof-like quality in a souvenir pack, and cupronickel coins of brilliant uncirculated quality in special printed packaging. All the coins must be accepted at their face value throughout the Republic of Kazakhstan for all types of payments, as well as for crediting to bank accounts and for transfer, change and exchange in all banks of the country.

Obverse

A composition of a naturalistic and a stencilled image of a deer's head; the inscription "BUǴY" is placed at the top. A wide border with decorative elements runs around the perimeter.

Reverse

Within a frame of national ornament — the year of minting, the denomination and the trademark of the Kazakhstan Mint; the silver coins also carry an inscription naming the metal, its purity and weight. Around the rim runs the legend "QAZAQSTAN RESPÝBLIKASY • REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN".