Banknotes of the Ukrainian hryvnia

The lowest four denominations are no longer issued in banknotes and are intended to be gradually substituted by coins, though they remain common.

The first of them took place in 1918 and 1919, when the Central Council of Ukraine decided to transition to hryvnia from karbovanets, another currency that circulated in various periods of the country's history.

[1] In December 1917, the UNR introduced karbovanets as a stopgap measure, until hryvnia were installed as an official currency according to the law of 1 March 1918.

The law of 1 March 1918 envisaged printing denominations of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 hryvnias, which were to be called State Credit Notes (Ukrainian: Державний кредитовий білет).

~ State Credit Notes of the Ukrainian People's Republic circulate alongside golden coinage.

[6] (mm) blue (ordered 15 million banknotes) Figures of two peasants (woman to the left, man to the right); between them a wreath, inside which a tryzub and denomination (in words) are located; gold standard notice at the bottom.

[18][19] Yakiv Zozulya attributes such rapid increases to a seemingly clientelist agreement with Austria-Hungary and German Empire, whereby Ukraine granted a 200 million karbovanets "unlimited-term loan" to each of these countries.

[21][19] They had a unified design prepared by Heorhiy Narbut, with a roughly square centre, where the value of the bond was written, plus four coupons on either side of the note, worth respectively 0.90, 1.80, 3.60 and 18 hryvnias each.

In practice, due to an acute shortage of small change, these pieces of paper were readily cut out and circulated as plain currency.

[28][30] Due to their lightness and their propensity to be blown away by the wind, they earned a tongue-in-cheek nickname of "butterflies" (Ukrainian: метелики).

[35] The government only managed to issue a so-called State Treasury Exchange Note (Ukrainian: Розмінний знак Державної Скарбниці) worth 5 hryvnias with a hastily prepared primitive design.

[36] It was the only state-sanctioned banknote ever printed on the territory of West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR), or, to be exact, in Stanislaviv, now Ivano-Frankivsk.

[42] They became obsolete before they could be circulated, as Petliura dissolved the Directorate's government in November 1920 in light of the lack of control of Ukrainian territories.

Over 300 municipalities within current Ukrainian borders once issued a total of over 1,500 variously named currency substitutes, mostly rubles, karbovanets and hryvnia.

[f][47] In April 1991, Leonid Kravchuk, then leader of the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR, ordered the preparation of designs for the new national currency.

[49] The choice of the people portrayed met with some reservations, as Kravchuk feared that inclusion of Ivan Mazepa on the banknotes might incense Moscow.

[46][50] The first series was developed by Ukrainian artists Vasyl Lopata and Borys Maksymov, who used relatively uncommon depictions of Taras Shevchenko and the Kievan Rus' rulers.

[46] Lopata proposed his versions of 500 and 1,000 hryvnias, with Hryhorii Skovoroda or Daniel of Galicia on the former denomination and Peter Mogila on the latter, but his idea was not supported.

[47][48][46] As the preparations for the first series were made, it became apparent that Ukraine lacked appropriate domestic facilities to print banknotes.

[50] 50, 100 and 200 hryvnias, which made part of the second series, after some problems connected with print quality and delays with the Canadian contractor, were eventually ordered from the Maltese branch of De La Rue, which was also producing karbovanets banknotes until the national banknote printing facility [uk] started operation in 1994.

[46][53][54][g] By the time the banknotes arrived, the economic crisis became so deep and inflation so bad that the government decided to stick with the karbovanets.

Lopata was, for instance, not happy with the De La Rue banknotes,[46] and the National Bank of Ukraine wanted to introduce new security features.

[62] (mm) Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kiev Ruler of Kievan Rus' in 980–1015 (now in Sevastopol) Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kiev Ruler of Kievan Rus' in 1019–1054 Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks (1648–1657) Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks (1687–1708), patron of the arts Poet, writer and political activist Historian and politician; head of the Central Council of Ukraine (1917–1918) Poet and artist; author of Kobzar (mm) (now Sevastopol) Pink, violet (reverse) Poet and artist; author of Kobzar Poet and writer Since October 2020, all banknotes from the first and the second series were withdrawn from circulation and are only exchanged in banks.

[69] The detected number of counterfeit hryvnia banknotes was hovering around 3 forged bills per 1 million genuine ones in 2015–2019.

[62] (mm) A depiction of saints Contemporary military equipment, decorations and a cross A depiction of saints Contemporary military equipment, decorations and a cross Contemporary silver coin A paraphrase of part of Yaroslav's deathbed will [uk] as it appears in the Primary Chronicle[j] Contemporary military equipment, decoration and household items; Russkaya Pravda Family coat of arms, fragment of Khmelnytsky's signature Cossacks' munitions and kleinody (symbols of power) Kurcz [pl] coat of arms Pink watermark field Quote from one of his poems [uk][k] Items connected with Mazepa's life Kurcz [pl] coat of arms White watermark field Quote from one of his poems [uk][k] Items connected with Mazepa's life A mountainous landscape in the background Facsimile from one of his poems Sculpture symbolising Glory from the theatre's roof in close-up Ornaments from Hrushevskyi's History of Ukraine-Rus' Statues of a peasant and a worker Face of the woman depicted in Shevchenko's Kateryna [uk] Facsimile from one of his poems Outline of her country house in Kolodiazhne, Volyn Oblast Quote from one of her poems Skovoroda's illustration to his philosophical thesis "Pythagorean triangle" as seen by Skovoroda, often interpreted as a Masonic symbol[72] (mm) Facsimile of one of his poemsA stylised flower in optically variable ink Sculpture symbolising Glory from the theatre's roof in close-up Ornaments from Hrushevskyi's History of Ukraine-Rus'A stylised flag of Ukraine in optically variable ink Statues of a peasant and a worker Dnieper as seen from Taras Hill Quote from one of his poems A palette and a paintbrush in SPARK Quote from one of her poems A stylised water lily in SPARK Motion of the flight of a white stork Skovoroda's illustration to his philosophical thesisA book with a letter and a feather in SPARK Composition of a crystal lattice structure and a plant ornament in SPARK (mm) NBU - 20 YEARS (Ukrainian: НБУ - 20 РОКІВ) added in SPARK Added window security thread with motion effectQuote swapped places with a security feature - instead of an OVI flower, a SPARK inscription "160 years from the birth" [of Ivan Franko] (Ukrainian: 160 років від дня народження) appears Added an OVMI inscription "30 years of Ukraine's Independence" (Ukrainian: 30 років Незалежності України) in the watermark area