50 Hryven

Ukraine's first post-independence banknote series was contracted to the Canadian Bank Note Company before the country had established any domestic printing capacity — a practical necessity that carried its own political symbolism for a newly sovereign state. The 1992 coupons (karbovantsi) had been a stopgap; these hryvni were the statement.

Engravers Borys Maksymov and Vasyl Lopata were Ukrainian nationals whose involvement was deliberate — CBNC incorporated their work into Ottawa-produced plates, an unusual collaborative arrangement that gave the series a genuine domestic artistic claim despite being printed abroad. Pick 107A belongs to the first signature variety of this denomination.