Old Money Registry

20 Möngö, Mongolbank

Монгол Улс — 20 мөнгө

Obverse 600 dpi
Reverse 600 dpi

This copy

Accession
OM-00592
Serial
AA 2288531
Series year
1993
Actually issued
1993
Signatures
This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
Grade
UNC (IBNS)

Estimated from the archival scan. Folds, soiling and edge condition are visible at this resolution; paper crispness, pinholes, small repairs and pressing are not.

Dimensions
90.3 × 46.2 mm (±1.1, from the scan)
Themes
ModernMongoliaSoyomboNaadam

The type

Type
20 Möngö, Mongolbank
Printer
Thomas De La Rue, London
Rarity
common

Symbology

Soyombo
The national emblem of Mongolia — a columnar device of fire, sun, moon and the taijitu — that stands at the hoist of the state flag and marks the country's sovereignty.
Naadam wrestlers
Two wrestlers in the bökh hold; wrestling is the foremost of the "three manly sports" contested at Mongolia's midsummer Naadam games.

What was happening

Twenty möngö is a fifth of a tögrög, and this orange note belongs to the 1993 series — the first money of post-communist Mongolia. After the single-bank Soviet model was dismantled and Mongolbank re-established as the central bank in 1991, the new denominations were ordered from Thomas De La Rue in London, who delivered a set that replaced every Marxist-Leninist symbol with emblems of Mongolian nationhood.

The note is printed vertically. One face shows the Soyombo sovereignty emblem with the classical vertical Mongolian script; the other depicts two Naadam wrestlers locked in the bökh grip, wrestling being the central and most prestigious of the "three manly sports" at the annual Naadam festival. As with all the möngö, the denomination lost its meaning as prices climbed through the 1990s, and the notes were hoarded or collected far more than they were ever spent.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 20 Möngö, Mongolbank in the collection.

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