10 Hryven Air Defenses – Ukraine's Reliable Shield

Issued in 2023 as part of Ukraine's ongoing wartime commemorative program, this coin belongs to a series the National Bank of Ukraine has used to document the conflict with Russia in near-real time — an unusual practice for any central bank actively operating under wartime conditions. The NBU has continued minting collector and circulation issues throughout the full-scale invasion that began in February 2022, a deliberate act of institutional continuity.

Nickel-plated zinc was selected over cupronickel almost certainly as a cost-reduction measure given wartime economic constraints on Ukraine's mint operations.