10 Hryven Butterfly Orchid

Ukraine's early commemorative silver program in the late 1990s drew heavily on native flora and fauna under pressure from conservation lobbying, and the Butterfly Orchid — Anacamptis papilionacea, listed in Ukraine's Red Book of endangered species — was among the first plant subjects approved. The National Bank launched the series partly to raise international profile during a period when the hryvnia itself, introduced only in 1996, was still establishing credibility as a post-Soviet currency.