The Karbovanets (Ukrainian: карбованець, romanized: karbovanets', plural: карбованці, karbovantsi for 2–4, or карбованців, karbovantsiv for 5 or more), also colloquially known as kupon (купон, plural: купони, kupony) or coupon from the banknote printing, is a former unit of currency in Ukraine in three separate periods of the 20th century.

In March 1917 in Kyiv, some political parties formed the Central Rada, which proclaimed on 20 November 1917, the foundation of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

On 20 September 1918, the Central Rada proclaimed the issue of banknotes of the State Treasure in denominations of 5, 10, 25, and 50 karbovantsiv to be valid until 1 March 1924.

The Ukrainian Government proclaimed money issued by the Denikinists to be false (series AO, numbers 210 and above).

The next release by the Central Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) was issued on 19 April 1918 and included denominations of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 shahs.

The term "shah" is borrowed by the Central Rada from the ancient name of small coins (change) from as long ago as the 16th century.

Shahs were printed in Kyiv in sheets of 100, perforated in order to simplify tearing off separate banknotes.

The Congress of Free Husbandmen on 29 April 1918 (with the great support of Austro-German occupants), elected tsarist general Pavlo Skoropadskyi as Hetman of Ukraine.

On 17 October 1918, the Hetman's government received from Germany another supply of banknotes with values of 2, 10, and 100 hryvnias, as ordered by the Central Rada.

The defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I also resulted in the breakup of Ukraine's occupation regime (Hetman Skoropadsky's government).

However, a period of unprecedented inflation was triggered by the Civil War and resulted in a sharp deficit of circulating money, especially banknotes.

The People's Commissar of Finance of the USSR, with the consent of the RSFSR government, decided to use the 10 karbovanets banknotes of the Directorate.

This note's artwork (without series and numbers) was captured by the Red Army on 5 February 1919 during the takeover of Kyiv from the Petlyurian troops.

The Soviet banknote differed from the Directorate's in paper, ink, watermarks, and the location of their series and numbers.

On 10 January 1992,[citation needed] the karbovanets replaced Rubles at par, with the ISO 4217 code being UAK.

The obverse of the notes all featured a portrait, including children, a peasant, a miner, a seaman, and a chemist.

All 1991 banknotes were of the same design, picturing Lybid from the monument of the founders of Kyiv on the obverse and the Sophia Cathedral on the reverse.

In the same year, notes for 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, and 100,000 karbovantsiv were also introduced into circulation, which were bigger in size and pictured the Volodymyr Monument on the obverse and the Kyiv Opera on the reverse.

Coins were dedicated to the events of the historical past and modern life on various topics: history, religion, sports, culture, etc.