200 Karbovantsiv

Ukraine's first post-Soviet banknotes were not issued under Ukrainian independence but were prepared in anticipation of it — the 200 Karbovantsiv series was designed and printed before the August 1991 coup attempt that accelerated the USSR's collapse. The karbovanets itself was a deliberately provisional currency, understood from the outset to be a transitional instrument until a permanent hryvnia could be introduced, a process that took far longer than anyone planned due to hyperinflation and political instability through the mid-1990s.

These early large-format notes were printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa — a striking detail given the political moment.