April 17, 2014 – Chinggis Khan and his sons built one of the biggest empires in the history of man and one that lasted longer than any other nomad empire. The Mongolian ruler Chinggis Khan was famous for being a clever, but equally brutal, strategist whose contemporaries lived in fear and terror of him. A Mongolian commemorative coin has now been dedicated to him.
Mongolia/ 1000 Togrog/ 1 oz/ Silver 999 /38.61 mm/ Mintage: 1000. © Coin Invest Trust.
Born Temujin in the middle of the 12th century in Central Asia, the young Chinggis Khan was to endure a great many things in his youth. His father, chieftain of the tribe, was murdered by hostile Tatars when his son was still very young. After the father’s death, the family was chased away because Temujin was a potentially dangerous rival for other chieftains. He himself lived like a slave among his enemies for years.
Eventually, though, Temujin managed to escape and return to his clan. Now, he showed his strong character and realised his full potential: determined and ambitious, he formed alliances, won supporters and secured their help with promises of future booty. It was the beginning of Temujin’s many triumphs. After uniting all Mongol tribes, he subjected neighbouring peoples and continued to expand his rule further and further. There was no stopping his deadly mounted hordes storming through Asia and even subjecting China.
Chinggis Khan as portrayed in a 14th-century Yuan era album. Source: Wikicommons.
A convention of chieftains elected Temujin “Great Khan”, i.e. Chinggis Khan, leader of all Mongols, in 1206. Chinggis Khan was now sovereign ruler of an empire that reached from the Caspian Sea to Korea and covered some 19 million square kilometres at the time of his death – twice as much as today’s China. A visionary leader, Chinggis Khan brought specialists from all fields unknown to the nomadic Mongols into the country, for instance artisans and scribes. He instituted a law that was binding for all subjects of his empire and introduced a Mongolian writing system which is still used in Mongolia today. Chinggis Khan died in 1227, presumably from the consequences of a riding accident.
His sons made the empire the greatest in the history of man before it fell apart shortly after.
Mongolia has now issued commemorative coins depicting Chinggis Khan. One of them has a reverse coloured in black and white, using a new colouring procedure and the latest digital printing technology in order to achieve this excellent colouring, even on high reliefs. For once, the nominal value of the gold coins is 1000 Togrog instead of the usual 500 Togrog.
Coin Invest Trust has minted several other Mongolian coins as you can read in the CoinsWeekly articles here and here.
Click here for the Coin Invest Trust website.