Diengi or Tenge?

The similarity between деньги (Dengi means money in Russian, while the present currency is the Pубль/Ruble) and Tenge, the current Kazakh currency, suggests that these two words have a common origin. As always, the "common ancestor" has to be digged out in the past and deserves a short explanation.

Few Kazakh Tenge coins (note the Coat of Arms of Kazakhstan on the bottom line)


The Kazakh word Tenge, also common to other Turkish languages, refers to a set of scale (the root of the word meaning "equal"). From ancestral bartering habits to more modern trading, the name given to the Kazakh money simply seems to reflect the final deal in a transaction when the offer meets the demands.

The Russian word деньги, for money, originates from the same group of Turkish languages.

The etymology of the Russian Pубль/Rubl' or Ruble comes from a verb meaning "to chop": the ruble being a determined weight resulting from chopping a piece off a silver ingot.
A Kopeck is a hundredth of ruble and, with the devaluation of the ruble, does not worth much nowadays.

One and Five Russian Ruble coins (the eagle with two heads represents the Russian Coat of Arms)


The present exchange rate between Russian Ruble and Kazakh Tenge is: 1 Ruble=5 Tenge. To that respect, the Russian currency is a strong currency vis a vis the Tenge. Both currencies are circulating in Baikonur.

Extending the scope of this note to some European currencies, the former Spanish Peso and Italian Lira, as well as the British Pound directly refer to other kinds of standardised "weight" used in the past.

All of this clearly indicates that for centuries (may be millennium) money was primarily aiming at supporting and easing the trade or real economy between the people and to a lesser extent speculation.