1 Karbovanets, Ukraine, 1991

This copy

Accession

OM-00238

Series year

1991

Actually issued

1991

Signatures

This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.

Grade

VF (IBNS)

Light wear. Estimated from the archival scan. Folds, soiling and edge condition are visible at this resolution; paper crispness, pinholes, small repairs and pressing are not.

Estimated value

$3 indicative

Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.

Dimensions

96.3 × 43.9 mm (±0.5, from the scan)

The type

Type

1 Karbovanets, Ukraine, 1991

Printer

Not established

Rarity

very common

Inscriptions

Obverse — what it is

Купон

Coupon - not a banknote, but a rationing device that became money because the rouble had stopped working

Symbology

Lybid, founder of Kyiv

The winged figure is Lybid, sister of the legendary founders of Kyiv, taken from the monument on the Dnipro. A new state reaching for a founding myth older than the empire it was leaving.

No security features

Flat offset printing on thin paper: no watermark, no thread, no intaglio. There was no time and no press.

What was happening

Ukraine's first currency was not a banknote. As the Soviet rouble collapsed in 1991 the republic issued kupony - coupons handed out with wages and required alongside roubles to buy goods, a rationing device that turned into money because the rouble no longer worked.

They were printed on thin paper without security features, and inflation destroyed them within three years. The hryvnia replaced them in 1996 at 100,000 karbovanets to one.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 1 Karbovanets, Ukraine, 1991 in the collection.