Today marks 26 years since the introduction of the official currency of Ukraine - the hryvnia. Within two weeks, from 2 to 16 September, a reform took place in the country, during which karbovanets were replaced by hryvnias and kopecks. In 2004, the NBU approved the official international symbol of our currency - a handwritten letter “г” crossed out by two parallel lines.
In ancient times, a neck ornament made of gold and silver was called a hryvnia. Later, this word was fixed as the name of a measure of weight and monetary unit in Kievan Rus. The Kyiv hryvnia was a diamond-shaped ingot weighing from 150 to 170 g, it was in circulation from the 11th to the 13th century. In subsequent centuries, ingots were cut in half or into four parts. In the Kingdom of Poland, Volhynia and Galicia, the Polish hryvnia (or grzywna krakowska) was used. And in the 16th century, European money came to the fore: pennies, thalers, denarii.
The return of the hryvnia occurred in 1918, when the Central Rada established a new monetary unit, which was divided into 100 steps and was equal to half the karbovanets. Artists Vasily Krichevsky and Georgy Narbut worked on the design of the hryvnia. The circulation of banknotes was printed in Berlin, the largest denomination of the banknote is 2000 hryvnias. With the advent of Soviet power, there was a transition to chervonets, and then came the Soviet karbovanets, which lasted until 1991.
During the time of independent Ukraine, four generations of hryvnia banknotes were printed. In the fall of 2020, the NBU began withdrawing banknotes of early generations from circulation, and new coins replaced the banknotes of small denominations (1, 2, 5 and 10 hryvnias).
There are even more circulating, anniversary and commemorative issues ahead of us. And now let's see what rare coins and banknotes can be found on Violity.
