Golden eagle (Burkit) blister

The nomads revered the golden eagle as a sacred bird symbolising courage and fearlessness. Golden eagle feathers served as a talisman in the dwelling of a nomad. The fifth issue of the series — the BÚRKIT coins in silver with face values of 5,000 and 500 tenge, and in cupronickel with face values of 200 and 100 tenge — appeared on 29 December 2022. The design rests on the union of a naturalistic and a stencilled image of the golden eagle treated figuratively in the Saka animal style: the silver coins carry a diamond insert and are selectively gilded, the cupronickel ones are gilded as well but have no insert.

The pictorial side is devoted to the golden eagle: the head of the bird of prey with its characteristic beak and set of the eyes is given large, and a diamond insert is placed in the eye. The naturalistic part of the image is joined to a stencilled, gilded one — the plumage passes into a regular pattern, and the bird reads at once as a living golden eagle and as its stylised sign. In the upper part stands the inscription "BÚRKIT". A wide border with decorative elements runs around the perimeter. The silver coins are additionally selectively gilded, so on them the contrast between cold silver and the warm stencilled part is especially distinct.

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 пятая coin of the series appeared on 29 December 2022; this card covers the cupronickel, brilliant uncirculated 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 golden eagle; the inscription "BÚRKIT" 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 RESPYBLIKASY • REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN".