100 Hryven Kyiv-Pechersk Assumption Cathedral

Issued in 1998 as part of Ukraine's early commemorative gold program, this coin marks the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra's Dormition Cathedral — the great 11th-century church that was destroyed by a deliberate NKVD explosion in November 1941 and left in ruins for decades under Soviet rule. Reconstruction did not begin until after independence, making the cathedral itself a charged subject for a newly sovereign mint to choose.

The National Bank's first gold commemorative series was struck at the Luhansk State Factory, not at a dedicated mint — Ukraine had none yet. Relatively low mintage figures across the 1998 gold issues reflect both the program's infancy and constrained production capacity.