500 Hryven 300th Birth Anniversary of Hryhorii Skovoroda

Hryhorii Skovoroda — 18th-century philosopher, poet, and wandering ascetic — is already the face of the regular-issue 500 Hryvnia, which makes this commemorative note an unusual case of a subject appearing twice in the same denomination of the same currency. The 2022 Russian destruction of the Skovoroda Literary Memorial Museum in Skovorodynivka, which occurred roughly a year after this note was issued, gave the commemorative an unintended and grim resonance.

Printed domestically at the NBU's own facility, the security specification is notably modest for a commemorative — watermark and thread only, without the polymer substrate or windowed foil elements seen on some NBU collector issues of the same period.