Recently, interest in the state of Ukraine has grown significantly. News feeds are full of articles about events in this country. Readers often have questions about certain names, surnames, and abbreviations. For example, what is a "UAH"? There are even options that this is an abbreviation for state or public organizations. In fact, this is the monetary unit adopted in Ukraine. In this article we will describe what “UAH” is, and what the hryvnia is, and also tell where this name came from.
Definition of a word
Hryvnia is a weight and currency unit in Kievan Rus, Lithuanian Rus and Ancient Rus. It is also known that this designation was widely used in other public entities of Eastern Europe. The word "hryvnia" was used to measure the weight of gold or silver. So there was her cash equivalent. Silver was twelve and a half times cheaper than gold.
What does hryvnia mean? Appearance story
Initially, this word denoted a neck ornament, which was most often made of precious metals - silver or gold. Over time, the word was transformed, and it acquired a different meaning - correspondence to a certain weight of gold or silver, and then was used as a monetary unit of measure: “hryvnia of silver”. Hence the current meaning of the word as the name of the monetary unit. For the first time this name appears in documents dating to 1130. This monetary unit was equivalent to a certain number of identical coins. Hence the account for pieces. Such a monetary unit was called “hryvnia kun”. In ancient Russia, the name referred to payment and money terms.
What is a "UAH"? Names and varieties
- Coin hryvnia. This is the name of a large silver ingot, which was in use in Ancient Russia from the 12th to the 14th centuries.
- The Kiev hryvnia is a hexagonal coin that has been circulating since the eleventh century. Her weight was about 165 grams. It is based on this currency that modern Ukraine has developed the current currency.
- Novgorod hryvnia is a currency common in the northern part of Russia. From the 13th century it began to be called the ruble. This name gradually replaced the previous one. Starting from the 15th century, precious metal ingots gradually went out of use as monetary units. The new monetary system has replaced, retaining the name “ruble”, and the hryvnia was taken as the basis for minting coins.
Now you know what UAH is.