News in Brief

Ukraine to Update Small Denomination Coins

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has announced that it is set to rename the country’s ‘kopiyka’ coins to ‘shah’ as part of a broader ‘de-russification’ strategy.

‘Shah’ dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was first used in Ukraine and its coin-counting practices. It is a Ukraine-specific coin name that no other linguistic cultures have, and has been widely used in classical Ukrainian literature. The word kopiyka, by contrast, is rooted in Russian tradition, and by replacing it, Ukraine is seeking to cleanse its currency of Russian and imperial associations.

The NBU has said that it has developed proposals for necessary legislative changes, including the establishment of a one-to-one ratio between the kopiyka and the shah. It will develop the design and determine the procedure for introducing shahs into circulation, as well as the procedure and timing for withdrawing kopiykas from circulation. If the measures are approved, the coins are intended to co-circulate for a time as the NBU does not plan for Ukrainians to have to deliberately exchange the old coins for the new.