20 Kuna

The 20 Kuna series (Pick 39) spans over a decade of relatively stable Croatian monetary policy, well past the hyperinflationary chaos of the early 1990s that had made the kuna's 1994 introduction genuinely consequential. By 2001, the note was a workhorse denomination with nothing urgent behind it — which is precisely why the design choices carry more weight than the economics do.

Miroslav Šutej, the senior designer on this series, was a major figure in Croatian visual art and graphic design whose work was exhibited internationally long before he turned to banknote commissions. His involvement gives the series an authorial quality unusual for central bank currency.

Giesecke & Devrient's Leipzig plant — not Munich, where the firm is headquartered — handled production throughout the run.