10 Hryven Freshwater Crab

Part of Ukraine's ongoing wildlife conservation series launched in the late 1990s, this issue was struck at the Luhansk Mint — one of Ukraine's two principal minting facilities — during a period when the National Bank was aggressively expanding its commemorative program to establish the hryvnia's cultural identity following the currency's 1996 introduction. The freshwater crab (Potamon ibericum), native to river systems in the Crimea and Caucasus foothills, was listed among protected species under Ukrainian conservation law.