Belarus Monetary Reform Ushers In Coins

Numismatic News - Circulating coins will be part of the latest Belarus currency reform, but the coins will be dated 2009!

This will be the third currency reform the Eastern European dictatorship has gone through since Belarus became an independent nation following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It will be the first reform that will involve coins as well as bank notes. Coins have not been used in what is now Belarus since Soviet times.

The revaluation will involve exchanging old rubles for new at a ratio of 10,000 to one. The old rubles will circulate simultaneously alongside the new currency until the end of 2016. Coins were being released July 1 in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 kapeykas or kopeks, and 1 and 2 rubles. The new National Bank of the Republic of Belarus bank notes are in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 rubles. What this means is that the new bank notes will lob four zeroes off each existing denomination.

The new bank notes were produced by the security printing company De La Rue in the United Kingdom. The coins are being struck by the Lithuanian Mint in Lithuania and by the Kremnica Mint in the Czech Republic. The coins and notes are dated 2009 since that is the date when this currency reform was initially anticipated to take place prior to the latest Belarus financial crisis.

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