25 YEARS SINCE THE KUNA WAS INTRODUCED

Twenty-five years ago, on Statehood Day on 30 May 1994, kunas and lipas became legal means of payment in the Republic of Croatia. That symbol of statehood and sovereignty was released by the Croatian National Bank after the requirement for the more permanent stabilisation of the Croatian economy became apparent. Based on the decision of 16 August 1991 by the president of the Republic of Croatia, Dr. Franjo Tuđman, the Commission for the preparation of the proposal for the conceptualisation of the monetary system and the creation of banknotes of the Republic of Croatia was formed. The Commission chose the proposal idea of kunas and lipas in coins, created by the academic sculptor Kuzma Kovačić, and the proposal for banknotes by the academic painter and graphic artist Miroslav Šutej and prof Vilko Žiljak, an expert in computer graphics. On 29 July 1993, the House of Representatives of the Croatian Parliament issued a decision declaring the Croatian kuna, divided into one hundred lipas, as the monetary unit of the Republic of Croatia. The history of the name of kuna starts with the fur of the mink (kuna in Croatian), which served as a payment in kind and a value measurement that would in time become a unit of account. The name kuna was chosen for the important role mink fur had in the monetary and fiscal history of the Republic of Croatia. Mink fur was a means of payment of taxes, which was called kunovina or marturina (lat. martur, Croatian kuna, mink) in medieval Slavonia, Primorje and Dalmatia. The name of the monetary unit smaller than the kuna is the lipa, which also has its roots in Croatian folklore, literary and historical heritage. Croatian National Bank