Date of issue: 16 December 1997. Edge: 10 sectors of corrugation. Coin devoted to 100 years of Muhtar Auezov. Muhtar Omarkhanovich Auezov is the great kazakh writer. 4-volumes novel-epopee "Road of Abai" translated to many languages brought world frame to him. M.O. Auezov was dramatist, critic, novelist, scientist, specialist in study of literature. The year 1997 was declared by UNESCO as the year of M.O. Auezov. Auezov was born into a nomadic family from what is today Abay District, in East Kazakhstan Province. His grandfather taught him to read and write.

Auezov was then educated at the Semipalatinsk Teacher's Seminary and Leningrad State University. Auezov is best known for his plays. The first play he authored was Enlik-Kebek, a story of two young lovers which bears a great resemblance to Romeo and Juliet. He authored more than twenty plays which dealt with issues relevant to Socialism in Kazakhstan. After writing plays, Auezov changed his focus to writing novels. Two novels - Abay and The Path of Abay - dealing with the life of Kazakh poet Abay Qunanbayuli were the product of the last twenty years of his life. Auezov's other projects included drawing and translating literature into the Kazakh language. Some translations made by him include Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.