Wolf (Kokbori)

Kókbori (the sky wolf) is one of the main totem animals in the beliefs of the proto-Turks: a spirit-ancestor, a spirit-patron and the supreme deity governing the whole universe. In the beliefs of nomadic peoples the wolf was one of the most significant symbols connected with the sky. According to historians, the cult of the wolf grew precisely out of the legends about the origin of the Turkic tribes: the sky wolf plays an important part in the victories of the Turks, he leads the army. This totem opened the series — the first Kókbori coins were released by the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan on 28 November 2018 in silver with face values of 5,000 and 500 tenge and in cupronickel with face values of 200 and 100 tenge. Both sides of the silver coins carry identical designs, and the 200 tenge cupronickel coin is gilded.

On the pictorial side the wolf's head is given large, filling almost the whole field: the muzzle is turned in profile, the gaze is directed sideways, and the diamond insert is set precisely in the eye — a device for which the drawing was built so that the stone would fall on the most expressive point of the image. One half of the head is modelled naturalistically, the other is turned into a stencil and picked out with gilding, and together they give a double portrait of the beast: the living wolf and its sign. Above the head stands the inscription "Kókbori". The border solves the same task differently: instead of a neutral rim, figures of wolves made in the Saka animal style run around the circle, their silhouettes repeating in obedience to the rhythm of the circumference, so that the coin begins to read as a talisman where the beast is shown not once but in many repetitions, as in ornament.

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 первая coin of the series appeared on 28 November 2018; 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 wolf's head, and the inscription "Kókbori". A wide border with figures of the wolf made in the Saka animal style runs around the perimeter of the coin.

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 "ҚАЗАҚСТАН РЕСПУБЛИКАСЫ • REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN", joining the Kazakh and the English name of the country.