Currencies

7 cards. Each one is a 40-second story with a five-minute read behind it.

1. The currency that vanished into a million piecesBefore the modern hryvnia, Ukraine navigated a turbulent monetary history defined by the karbovanets. From gold-backed notes in 1917 to the hyperinflationary millions of the 1990s…
2. A currency that survived empires, occupations, and a literal break from its motherlandThe Netherlands Antillean guilder wasn't just money; it was a geopolitical survivor. From 18th-century silver coins to modern Caribbean notes, this currency navigated colonial shi…
3. The gold coin that served as Europe's first 'Euro'Before the Euro unified the continent, the Napoléon coin did it first. This French gold piece wasn't just a symbol of imperial power; it was the blueprint for a shared European cu…
4. Puerto Rico: The First Place in the Americas to Print BanknotesLong before Cuba or even Spain itself, Puerto Rico was pioneering paper currency. Driven by a desperate shortage of gold and a complex web of colonial taxes, the island became an …
5. The German mark was a gold-backed anchor in a shifting world economyBefore the hyperinflation of the 1920s, the German mark was a symbol of monetary stability. Introduced as the culmination of decades of unification efforts, it tied the German Emp…
6. The Armenian dram: a linguistic and monetary bridge across centuriesThe word 'dram' is more than a local currency; it is a linguistic ancestor to the Greek drachma, the Arabic dirham, and even the English unit of weight. From medieval silver coins…
7. The currency of a nation that exists primarily in collectors' albumsWhile the apsar is the official legal tender of Abkhazia, it is rarely used for daily commerce. Instead, these coins and notes serve as a vessel for national identity, minted in p…

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