Ukrainian hryvnia
currency of Ukraine
The hryvnia ( (hə-)RIV-nee-ə; Ukrainian: гривня [ˈɦrɪu̯nʲɐ] , abbr. грн hrn; sign: ₴; code: UAH) has been the national currency of Ukraine since 2 September 1996. Each hryvnia, the base unit, is divided into 100 kopiyka (sometimes called kopecks in English; Ukrainian: копійка). It is named after a measure of weight used in Kievan Rus'.
Etymology
The currency of Kievan Rus' in the 11th century was the grivna. The word is thought to derive from the Slavic griva; which compares with the Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, and Serbian word грива (griva, meaning 'mane'). It might have indicated something valuable to be worn around the neck, that was usually made of silver or gold, and may be related to the Bulgarian and Serbian term grivna (гривна, 'bracelet').
Following Ukraine's declared secession from Russia in 1917, the Ukrainian People's Republic named its currency hryvnia after the grivna of Kievan Rus'; these were designed by Heorhiy Narbut.
The word was used to describe silver or gold ingots of a certain weight.
Currency sign
The hryvnia sign is a cursive Ukrainian letter He (г), with a double horizontal stroke (₴), symbolizing stability, similar to that used in other currency symbols such as the yen and Chinese yuan (¥, a symbol the currencies share), euro (€), and Indian rupee (₹).
“Ukrainian hryvnia” enters the record as currency of Ukraine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ukrainian, hryvnia and currency can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ukrainian hryvnia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.