The Macedonian denar
Currency · MKD · 1 country
Macedonia printed its first denars in secret at the 11 October works in Prilep, and on 26 April 1992 its parliament made them the national currency, swapping Yugoslav dinars one for one. In May 1993 a new denar, worth 100 of the first, replaced them. The National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia issues it and has pegged it to the euro since January 2002.
No sign of its own
The record gives the denar no sign. Amounts carry the abbreviation ден, the first three Cyrillic letters of the name, or den in Latin letters. The name comes from the denarius, the monetary unit of ancient Rome.
- ISO code
- MKD
- ISO number
- 807
- Decimals
- 2
An amount, written out
MKD 1,234.50
- MKD 1,234.50English
- 1234,50 denAlbanianNorth Macedonia
In English the code comes before the amount. Where the Macedonian denar is used, it comes after the amount in North Macedonia.
Where the Macedonian denar is the official currency
North Macedonia pays in denars, and has since the Yugoslav dinar stopped being legal tender there on 30 April 1992.
About the Macedonian denar
How the first denar was printed in secret
Macedonia voted for independence in a referendum on 8 September 1991 and kept using the Yugoslav dinar. A small commission prepared the new money in strict secrecy, meeting in the offices of the president and the prime minister. Printing began on 15 January 1992 at the 11 October printing works in Prilep, on paper bought in Slovenia and brought in quietly. That paper turned out to be poor and short on security features.
The notes carry no currency name. The Law on the Monetary Unit that named the denar could only pass once the printing was done, and the secrecy ruled out adopting it sooner. The designer had one week and a small budget, so the six lowest notes share one design in different colours: a man and two women picking tobacco on the front, the Ilinden monument in Kruševo on the back.
Why the parliament acted just before Labour Day
The planners picked a session just before the Labour Day holidays, so that anything that went wrong could be corrected over the holidays. On 26 April 1992 the parliament passed four laws, among them the ones on the monetary unit and on the National Bank. The first notes circulated the next day. On 30 April the Yugoslav dinar stopped being legal tender.
The same session adopted an anti-inflation programme that fixed the denar at 360 to the Deutsche Mark. It did not hold. Word of the plan had leaked, and people brought in about twice as many dinars to exchange as the bank expected, so a black market rate reopened well above the official one. The denar was devalued in October 1992, moved to a basket peg, devalued again that December and freed from the peg in mid-1993.
How the denar found a fixed anchor
In May 1993 the bank replaced the temporary notes with a permanent denar at 100 old to one new. From October 1995 it held the new denar against the Deutsche Mark, and since January 2002 it has held it against the euro.
What the coins and notes show
The coins were made at home too. Of the many toolmakers in the country, only the Suvenir factory in Samokov took the job, and in May 1993 it struck 50 deni and 1, 2 and 5 denars. Their designs show a gull, a Šar Mountain dog, a wildcat and an Ohrid trout. Coins of 10 and 50 denars followed in November 2008. The 50 deni coin, struck only in 1993 and hardly seen, was withdrawn in 2013. After the Prespa Agreement changed the country's name, coins bearing North Macedonia began to replace the old ones in April 2021, starting with the 1 denar.
The first permanent notes of 1993 ran from 10 to 500 denars. The bank added 1,000 and 5,000 in 1996, then 200 and 2,000 in 2016, when it also began withdrawing the 5,000. Polymer notes of 10 and 50 denars were unveiled in 2017.
Common questions
Questions about the Macedonian denar
Why do the first Macedonian banknotes not say denar?
They were printed before the law that named the currency. The operation was secret, and the Law on the Monetary Unit could not be put to parliament until the money was ready, so the notes printed in Prilep from January 1992 left the name off. The law passed on 26 April 1992 and made denar the official name. The notes also give the issuer as the National Bank of Macedonia rather than the name the bank later took.
Is the Macedonian denar pegged to the euro?
Yes. The National Bank has pegged the denar to the euro since January 2002, after holding it against the Deutsche Mark from October 1995. The first denar of 1992 had started at a fixed 360 to the Deutsche Mark, but that peg broke within months.
Which animals appear on Macedonian coins?
The coins of 1993, made at the Suvenir factory in Samokov, carried a gull, a dog from the Šar Mountains, a wildcat and a trout from Lake Ohrid. The national bank described them as symbols characteristic of the country, and ten years on it noted that the designs had not changed.
Are deni still used?
No. A denar divides into 100 deni, but the only deni coin ever struck for the permanent denar, the 50 deni of 1993, was minted in that one year and was withdrawn in 2013. Since then no coin below one denar has been in use. Wikipedia notes that deni can still be redeemed at the national bank.