Belarusians are moving from millions to pennies

The announced denomination of the ruble will “reduce” Belarusian millions by ten thousand times and will force Belarusians to look for wallets with compartments for kopecks.

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, signed a decree, according to which, with 1 July 2016, new banknotes are put into circulation in Belarus - without the usual multitude of zeros.

It was announced that the exchange of “old” money for “new” ones will be without restrictions and commission fees, from July 1 to December 31, 2016, banknotes will be in parallel circulation, i.e., they can be calculated in any way.

Exchange in subsequent periods - in banks, the two most recent years - until December 31 2021 - only in the National Bank.

The current denomination is the third and largest in the history of the Belarusian ruble: the denomination of the currency has decreased in 10 times in 1994 and in 1000 times since January 1 and 2000.

Instead of hares - cornflowers

The Belarusian ruble is still called the “bunny”: the first banknotes, which appeared in 1992, showed images of local animals and beasts, from the “slanting” to the Belovezhskaya bison; and the family disaster of those years was the inquisitive children who diligently cut out beautiful pictures with the salaries hidden by their parents.

On the banknotes entered soon into circulation, there is no fauna. There is a flora: cornflowers, fern leaves, laurel branches.

Many images of historically noteworthy places and objects range from the White Tower (the ancient tower in the city of Kamenets, near the border with Poland) to the valuable ancient weaving of Slutsk belts.

The National Bank explained: the general concept of the design of the new banknotes corresponds to the motto “My Country - Belarus”. Each banknote is dedicated to one of the Belarusian regions, the regions in alphabetical order “claim” the denomination of the banknote. The most “low-value” is the Brest banknote - a banknote with images of surrounding historical attractions means five rubles.

The most significant at par is the capital. On the front side of the 500 ruble banknote is a new building of the National Library, which a couple of years ago was included in the reviews of professionals as one of the most unsuccessful architectural structures in the world, but always amazing tourists.

It is curious, however: the “capital” five hundred ruble ruble is equal to the current five million - the two-month salary rate of even a capital “state employee”. The highest bill so far, until the redenomination coming in eight months, is 200 Belarusian rubles.

The average person decided unequivocally: a price increase is coming if there is such a significant new “piece of paper”.

New old money

Social media users and commentators in online forums compete in sarcasm.

“Hurray for the denomination. A dollar is 65 kopecks!” - writes someone Dmitry.

"Farewell, country of millionaires!" - Alex is complacent.

“Again, the acceleration is for a ruble, and the impact is for a penny,” warns the “Kali Nikali” user.

“Why coins? it costs more than paper, it’s uncomfortable to wear and the design is very poor: Ssser’s - peace of work may,” notes a reader of Nasha Niva. (Spelling and punctuation preserved).

Errors and inaccuracies

With coins, and really trouble: for almost a quarter of a century the Belarusians had no coins! On shopping tours to neighboring countries take special wallets - with offices for metal euros and cents, Russian rubles and kopecks, Polish pennies.

Now Belarusians are offered a “hybrid” coin of their own - with a coat of arms similar to the Soviet one (the Belarusian state symbol is also surrounded by ears and ribbons around a bulging point of the globe), and an almost European design on the back side - on the two-ruble note, for example, there is a gilded stripe around the circumference, and The design of the number is similar to the euro.

The “new” paper banknotes bear the signature of Pyotr Prokopovich, who resigned as head of the National Bank in 2011. (However, Pyotr Prokopovich still holds more than 20 leadership positions simultaneously).

“Taking into account the time of production, the new Belarusian rubles have certain features,” warns the National Bank, reporting that preparations for the redenomination have been going on for a long time, and the new banknotes were produced back in 2008.

In addition to the facsimile of the signature of the ex-head of the National Bank, on the banknote released into circulation eight months later, the inscription of the numeral “fifty”, which does not comply with the current rules of Belarusian spelling, was allowed. But when new banknotes are produced, they promise to correct the inscription.

Previously, Forum reported about victory incumbent head of state Alexander Lukashenko at the presidential elections, which took place 11 October 2015 of the year. Lukashenko re-elected Belarusian President for the fifth time.