The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy recommended that the parliament support bill No. 14093 on renaming the "kopiyka" (kopeck) to "shag".
This was reported by the chairman of the committee, the MP from the "Servant of the People" party Danylo Hetmantsev.
The change of name "kopiyka" was initiated by the National Bank back in September 2024. And the corresponding bill was registered on October 1. The explanatory note says that today kopecks remain in circulation only in states hostile to Ukraine.
Of the 15 countries that were part of the USSR, “kopecks”, except for Ukraine, remained in only three: in Russia, Belarus and in unrecognized Transnistria.
The MPs also believe that the return of the name "shag" will serve to restore historical justice and de-Sovietize monetary circulation.
It is proposed that kopecks and shags be in circulation in parallel, the National Bank does not plan to specifically withdraw kopecks. They want to establish a ratio between them of 1:1.
Why "shag"?
A small coin called a "shag" was used in Ukraine from the time of the Hetmanate until the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921.
Thus, on March 1, 1918, the Central Rada adopted a law on the hryvnia (UAH) as the monetary unit of the Ukrainian Peopleʼs Republic, which provided for the issuance of state credit notes in denominations of 2, 5, 10, 20, 100, 500, and 1000 hryvnias, as well as coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 20, and 50 shags. However, these coins were never minted due to economic and technical difficulties.
Instead, small denominations were issued — State Treasury stamps — in denominations of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 shags. On the reverse, they bore the inscription: “It is equal to a ringing coin.”
They were in circulation until March 1919, when they were abolished by the Soviet authorities.
With Ukraine gaining independence in 1991, the issue of introducing its own currency became acute. The potential name for the coins caused lively discussion — various names were proposed, including "shag" (samples of such coins were even produced by the Luhansk Machine-Building Plant in 1992). Instead, on March 2, 1992, the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the name "kopiyka".
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