Ukrainian hryvnia

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The hryvnia (Ukrainian: гривня) has been the national currency of Ukraine since 1996.

Contents

1 Introduction
2 History
3 Coins
4 Banknotes
5 See also
6 External links

Introduction

The hryvnia replaced the karbovanets, the currency Ukraine used after the breakup of the Soviet Union (karbovanets is equivalent to ruble in Ukrainian). One hryvnia equalled 100,000 karbovanets. The hryvnia is divided into 100 kopiyok (genitive plural, singular kopiyka); see kopek.

Hryvnia is often transliterated as hryvna or hryvnya, also from Russian: grivna. The nominative plural name of the currency is hryvni, but amounts may be transliterated directly in the genitive plural, for example 100 hryven’, instead of using the constructed English plural hryvnias.

The hryvnia symbol is a cursive Ukrainian letter He, with a double horizontal stroke symbolizing stability. Hryvnia is abbreviated "грн." (hrn.) in Ukrainian. The hryvnia is represented by the ISO 4217 currency code UAH, or 980. The hryvnia symbol ₴ [may not be rendered in all browsers] has been accepted for encoding as U+20B4 in Unicode 4.1 released in 2005. The specific design of the hryvnia sign is a result of a public contest held by National Bank of Ukraine in 2003.

As of February 21, 2006, there were 5.05000 hryvnias to the US dollar or 6.012530 to the euro at official exchange rate of National Bank of Ukraine.

A commemorative 1 hryvnia coin to biathlon of the 1998 Winter Olympics, held in Nagano, Japan.

History

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Hryvnia was used as currency in Kievan Rus' in the 11th century. The word hryvnia (or grivna) was derived from the Slavic hryva. Originally the word meant neck as opposed to the current mane. Hryvnia meant something valuable worn around the neck, usually made of silver or gold. Later the word was used to describe silver or gold ingots of a certain weight. The other lesser currency units were nogata — a fur of a large animal such as a bear or a wolf, kuna — a fur of smaller animals, like mink or sable (compare Croatian kuna), and the cheapest was veksha — a fur of a squirrel.

In 2004 the National Bank of Ukraine has officially recommended to distinguish between hryvnia and hryvna in both historical and practical means. Linguistic research was cited as proof that hryvnia refers to medieval currency and hryvna to the female decoration of that time. The proper name for modern Ukrainian currency is гривня (hryvnia).

Coins

Currently Circulating Coins [link]
Image	Value	Diameter	Weight	Composition	Edge	Obverse	Reverse	First Minted Year
	1 kopiyka	15.5 mm	1.5 g	Stainless steel	Plain	Value	Ukrainian Trident	1992
	2 kopiyky	15.5 mm	0.64 or 1.8 g	Aluminum or stainless steel	Plain
	5 kopiyok	15.5 mm	4.3 g	Stainless steel	Grained
	10 kopiyok	15.5 mm	1.7 g	Brass or Aluminum bronze	Grained	Value	Ukrainian Trident	1992
	25 kopiyok	15.5 mm	2.9 g		With grained sectors
	50 kopiyok	15.5 mm	4.2 g		With grained sectors
	1 hryvnia	15.5 mm	7.1 or 6.9 g		Inscription

Banknotes

Newest series (2000's) [link]
Image	Value	Dimensions	Color	Obverse	Reverse	Printed Date
	1 hryvnia	63 x 118 mm	Gray-green	Portrait depicting duke Volodymyr the Great	The fortress wall of Volodymyr in Kiev.	December 1, 2004
	2 hryvni		Brown	Portrait depicting duke Yaroslav the Wise	The Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev.	September 28, 2004
	5 hryven		Blue	Portrait depicting hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky	A church in the selo (village) of Subotovy.	June 14, 2004
	10 hryven	66 x 124 mm	Crimson	Portrait depicting hetman Ivan Mazepa	The Holy Dormition Cathedral of the Kievo-Pecherska Lavra	November 1, 2004
	20 hryven	69 x 130 mm	Green	Portrait depicting poet Ivan Franko	The Lviv Opera Theatre	December 1, 2003
	50 hryven	72 x 136 mm	Violet	Portrait depicting historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky	The building of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada	March 29, 2004
	100 hryven	75 x 142 mm	Olive	Portrait depicting poet Taras Shevchenko	The Chernecha landscape near Cherkasy and the figures of a kobzar and a guide boy	February 20, 2006

External links

Currencies of Europe
Eurozone	Euro
Northern	Danish krone > Faroese króna \| Icelandic króna \| Norwegian krone \| Swedish krona
Baltic	Estonian kroon > Latvian lats \| Lithuanian litas
Western	British pound \| Guernsey pound \| Jersey pound \| Manx pound
Central	Czech koruna > Hungarian forint \| Polish złoty \| Slovak koruna \| Slovenian tolar \| Swiss franc
Eastern	Belarusian ruble > Kazakhstani tenge \| Russian ruble \| Ukrainian hryvnia
Southeastern	Albanian lek > Bulgarian lev \| Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark \| Croatian kuna \| Macedonian denar \| Moldovan leu \| Romanian leu \| Serbian dinar
Mediterranean	Cypriot pound > Gibraltar pound \| Maltese lira \| Turkish new lira
Transcaucasia	Armenian dram > Azerbaijani manat \| Georgian lari
Unrecognized Countries	Transnistrian ruble
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