“Step” in the law: how a new Ukrainian coin is winning its place in the financial sun
17 December 12:01
The Ukrainian parliament has come close to renaming “kopecks” into “steps.” That is, to make a decision that, as some believe, has little to do with economics and much more to do with ideology and politics. Is this true – "Komersant Ukrainian" found out
The Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy has recommended that the Verkhovna Rada adopt as a basis and as a whole the Draft Law on Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the de-Sovietization of the name of the Ukrainian currency and, accordingly, the renaming of the “kopiyka” coin to the “shag”.
The committee chairman, Danylo Hetmantsev, who reported this, did not hold back in his assessments and epithets, calling the renaming a “fundamental and stunning reform” and expressing his belief that the “shag” will be a powerful and victorious step towards the macro-financial stability of the state.” But not everyone shares this assessment. In the Parliament, too.
Not just “steps”
Back in October 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine appealed to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, with a proposal to support the initiative to change the name of the change coin from “kopiyka” to the historically Ukrainian name “shag”. A year later, the project appeared in parliament.
According to its initiators, including the leaders of the Verkhovna Rada, “by the 30th anniversary of the monetary reform and the introduction of Ukraine’s own currency, which will be celebrated in 2026, it is time to finally clear Ukraine’s monetary sovereignty of the slightest affinity with anything Russian or post-Soviet.”
The revival of the Ukrainian name for the coins, “shakh,” is based primarily on Ukraine’s historical and linguistic tradition.
“At various times, both during the Hetmanate and the Ukrainian Revolution of 1918, the name for a small coin ‘shag’ was used in Ukraine, which comes from the Old Ukrainian ‘siah’ (‘step’) or the word ‘shelyag’ and is a specific Ukrainian lexical unit,” the explanatory note to the bill says.
However, there are those in the parliament who believe that “during the period of full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation, the state should concentrate legislative efforts on solutions that strengthen defense capabilities, macroeconomic stability, institutional capacity and social protection,” rather than “‘stepping’ towards a ‘bright future’ through a symbolic ‘improvement’ – renaming a bargaining chip.”
These MPs, including former Speaker of the Parliament Dmytro Razumkov, proposed an alternative bill that proposed renaming kopiykas not “steps” but… “walks” instead. In this way, the initiators of this project want to “clearly demonstrate the untimeliness and dubious expediency of renaming the change coin in times of war.”
Not only historical expediency
The expert community is more relaxed about the initiative to rename “kopiykas” into “shahs.” For example, investment banker and financial expert Serhiy Fursa believes that there is nothing wrong with this renaming.
“In principle, there is a positive story in this, a basic ideological and historical one. It’s not about the economy, after all. But it won’t hurt anyone, it won’t do any harm. And since, in principle, such a renaming is logical and historically correct, let it be,” the expert notes.
Oleksandr Savchenko, rector of the International Institute of Business, considers the idea of renaming to be appropriate and useful.
“In ’92, the pro-communist majority of the Verkhovna Rada blocked the name of the Ukrainian coin “shag”. Even then, the National Bank wanted, and I was personally convinced, and I was working as a deputy head of the NBU at the time, that the coins should be called “shags.” This name correlates with the name of the Ukrainian hryvnia banknote. “Kopiyka” is a Russian name that correlates with the ruble. Unfortunately, we were unable to defend the name “shag” back then. Now it’s time to rename it – better late than never,” says the former banker.
He explains that the new and old design coins will be in circulation in parallel.
“We have only 50 kopecks left to mint profitably. That’s why we can mint 50 steps. For some time, 50 kopecks and 50 steps will coexist. And gradually, year by year, kopecks will disappear from Ukrainian monetary terminology and circulation,” the expert states.
And yet there are economic issues.
While the National Bank has long and consistently been in favor of renaming “kopiykas” to “shahs,” insisting that it will not require additional costs, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, for example, is against it. They state that such legislative proposals have no economic justification and expediency, and are only a diversion of state resources from the needs of security and protection of the state from the aggressor country.
The Commission also argues that the implementation of the change in the name of the Ukrainian banknote will lead to the need to make changes to many information and communication systems of professional capital market participants, as well as to the registers maintained by the Commission, due to the need to change the name of the monetary unit of the nominal value of securities.
In addition, issuers of securities will need to reissue global certificates and certificates of issue of securities, which contain information on the nominal value of securities. This will require the expenditure of financial resources and time.
Author: Sergiy Vasilevich
