UKRAINIAN MONEY AND EXCHANGE
The monetary unit of the present-day Ukraine is hryvnia.
Money can be exchanged at banks, exchange desks at hotels, shops or licensed exchange windows. Passport is not required for exchange operations. Exchange rate might differ from the official National Bank of Ukraine rate.
As of June 23, 2009: 1 dollar = 7.72 hryvnia.
USD and EURO are the most popular currencies in exchange booths. Other currencies are more difficult to exchange and have lower rates due to minor circulation in Ukraine.
VISA, MasterCard / EuroCard are accepted in major hotels, restaurants, casinos, stores, ATM's.
Owners of American Express will experience problems when using their cards even in regional centers.
Traveler's checks and credit cards can be cashed less out of a bank fee (which is 1-4% of the amount) at the majority of banks. Most popular Travelers checks in Ukraine are Thomas Cook and Visa. To cash travelers checks, the receipt of purchase and passport of check owner is required.
Even before the present era began arrowheads were originally used as money equivalent in the Northern Black Sea coastal region. The first coins that our ancestors encountered were of ancient Greece origin found in hoards or individually on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov coasts. At the end of the 10th century in Kyivan Rus Prince Volodymyr took to minting coins of silver and gold called “sribnyk”and “zlatnyk’. Later, in ancient Rus they issued a cast silver piece hryvnia that became the principle monetary unit of the country.
The things did come around so that the territory of Ukraine was part of other countries with the correspondent use of monies. Situation started changing only after the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR) was created. Under the UPR, Hetmanat, and Dyrectoria existing from 1917 to 1920, twenty-four types of legal tender were being issued.
Conditions for introducing full-fledged national currency have formed after independence of Ukraine was declared. To follow the traditions of the Kyivan Rus and liberation efforts of 1917 to 1920 hryvnia and its small change kopeck were put into circulation.
Founded in 1991, the National Bank of Ukraine is granted prerogative rights to put into circulation (emit) banknotes and coins. The NBU designs the bills and defines their face-value, assigns protective system and payment marks. To print and coin money the Country’s own Mint and Banknote factory was set up with the state-of-the-art equipment provided.
The letter code of the currency is UAH, with numerical code 980, abbreviated form as “грн” in Cyrillic.
Hryvnia is forgery protected through the following:
· Watermarks.
· Protective strip.
· Relief elements.
· Combined image.
· Iridescent printing.
· Anti-scan gauze.
· Encoded latent image.
· Microtext.
· Visible protective fibers.
· Invisible protective fibers.
· Fluorescent number.
· Magnetic number.
· Hidden face-value designation.
· Fluorescent printing.
· Letterpress.
· “Orlovsky” printing.
Banknotes and coins in circulation:
· Paper bills of nominal value of 1 hryvnia (issue of 1992, 1994, and 1995); 2 hryvnias (1992, 1995, and 2001); 5 hryvnias (1992, 1994, 1997, and 2001); 10 hryvnias (1992, 1994, 2000 and 2004); 20 hryvnias (1992, 1995, 2000 and 2003); 50 hryvnias (1994 and 2004), 100 hryvnias (1994); and 200 hryvnias (2001);
· Small change coins denominated 1 kopeck (coinage of 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2001); 2 kopecks (1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, and 2001); 5 copecks (1992, 1996, 2001); 10 kopecks (1992, 1994, 1996, 2001); 25 (1992, 1994, 1996, 2001), and 50 kopecks (1992, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 2001) kopeck.
· Current coin of one hryvnia of 1995, 1996, and 2002 coinage.
Detailed information on Ukrainian money may be found at the official website of the National Bank of Ukraine:
www.bank.gov.ua
