The Ukrainian hryvnia

Where the name hryvnia comes from

The grivna was a measure of weight and the currency of Kievan Rus' in the eleventh century. The word is thought to come from the Slavic griva, a mane, and may once have meant a valuable ornament of silver or gold worn around the neck. When the Ukrainian People's Republic introduced its own hryvnia on 1 March 1918, divided into 100 shahs and worth half a karbovanets, it borrowed the old name. Heorhiy Narbut designed those notes. The karbovanets came back as the main currency that April.

Why the karbovanets came before it

After independence in 1991, the presidium of Ukraine's parliament approved hryvnia as the name of the national currency and made the kopiika its hundredth. The money itself had to wait. From January 1992 the National Bank of Ukraine put reusable coupons into circulation; they became the basis of the Ukrainian karbovanets, which replaced the ruble at par and from 12 November 1992 was the only means of payment in Ukraine.

Hyperinflation followed. Only in 1995 and the first half of 1996 did inflation slow and the karbovanets steady enough for a reform. The first hryvnia notes had been printed in 1992 by the Canadian Bank Note Company and were kept in Canada until prices were under control.

How the switch was done in two weeks

A presidential decree of 25 August 1996 set the reform for 2 September. From then until 16 September both currencies were legal tender, but change was given only in hryvnias and bank accounts were converted automatically. Of the 338.1 trillion karbovanets in circulation, the National Bank withdrew 327.9 trillion, or 97%, during the transition. After 16 September the remaining karbovanets could still be exchanged at banks.

Who makes the notes and coins

The first banknotes, designed by the artists Vasyl Lopata and Borys Maksymov, came from Canada and from De La Rue in Britain, and some coins were struck in Italy and at the Luhansk Machine-Tool Plant. Ukraine then built its own production. The Banknote Factory opened its first phase in March 1994, the Banknote Paper Factory followed in 1997 and the Mint in 1998. The National Bank's Banknote Printing and Minting Works now produces all hryvnia notes and coins, and since 2016 its paper factory has made banknote paper from flax instead of cotton.

Which notes have been added since

The first series ran from 1 to 100 hryvnias, with coins of 1 to 50 kopiikas; a 1 hryvnia coin followed in March 1997. Higher denominations followed: 200 hryvnias in 2001, 500 in 2006 and 1,000, with a portrait of the scientist Volodymyr Vernadsky, on 25 October 2019. A 2,000 hryvnia note entered circulation on 4 September 2026. It carries the poet and dissident Vasyl Stus, and on the back the Faculty of Philology of Donetsk National University, where he studied.

At the other end, minting of the 1 and 2 kopiika coins stopped after 2013, and on 1 October 2019 the 1, 2 and 5 kopiika coins ceased to be legal tender, though banks still exchange them.