As the year comes to a close it saw an unprecedented amount of activity coming from the NBU BPMW, twelve new releases including six new commemorative notes, and while I'm not entirely ruling an additional release prior to the new year or postdated issue in 2022 I feel now is a good time to wrap this all up. So, I'm combining this year's new varieties, commemoratives, and my speculations into a single Journal entry, and saying adieu to 2021. 

First let's wrap up the commemoratives.

On December 22, the NBU released the 50 & 1,000 UAH commemorative banknotes completing the special 30th Anniversary of Ukraine's Independence commemorative series of notes, that included all six current denominations (20, 50, 100, 200, 500 & 1000). The latest releases are similar to the previous in that the banknotes have the prefix ЯА with an issue limit of 30,000 and are of the current design with the 30th Anniversary Logo added to the open area, to the left of the portrait, where the watermark is placed. Also, like the previous commemorative notes, the logo was added via screen printing and is optically variable with the colors coinciding with the color pallet of the note. As has been the case previously the NBU lists the smaller denomination first and as such I would expect the next available Pick number to be assigned to the 50 UAH first, then the 1000. The new commemoratives, as with all 2021 issued notes, sport the signature of the new Governor of the NBU, Kyrylo Shevchenko. His arm must be tired. 

The 50 UAH, 2021, commemorative banknote.

30th Anniversary Logo.

The 1000 UAH, 2021, commemorative banknote.

30th Anniversary Logo.

All Six Commemorative notes.

The Pick order is already established for these with the 100 & 500 commemoratives already having been assigned 129a & 130a respectively. Following that order I would expect the 20 UAH to receive P# 131a, the 200 UAH P# 132a, the 50 P# 133a and the 1000 P# 134a. I guess we'll see. The 50 & 1000 UAH commemoratives are being distributed through select banks instead of the NBU's online store, apparently it crashed due to demand for the previous commemoratives and is being rebuilt. The distributing banks are Oshchadbank, Ukrgazbank, Radabank and Taskombank, the notes are selling for 14 UAH above face value and are only available for direct purchase from the participating banks.

Now let's wrap up the 2021 signature varieties.

Since my last update for the new signature varieties for 2021 two more have been released into circulation, 50 and 1000 UAH notes bearing the new Governor's signature were released in early December with the 1000 UAH being released first. This completes an update of all denominations to the new signature variety and adding six new Pick #'s, matching the commemoratives. Hey, if you already had the presses fired up, why not?  Both notes are of the same previous design, dating from 2019, with the 2021 notes being the first signature variety for both. The 50 UAH should be assigned P# B126b and the 1000 UAH P# A128b.

1000 UAH 2021 banknote with Shevchenko signature and 2021 date.

50 UAH 2021 banknote with Shevchenko signature and 2021 date.

This has been an eventful year for Ukrainian note collectors, twelve new varieties/releases is a boat load and the cost associated is not miniscule. Especially when one does not live in the country of origin. I'm ready for things to slow down now, but there was a press release from the NBU stating that 30th Anniversary commemorative sets, containing all six notes, will be released in 2022! Will they be the exact same notes, with the same prefix, date and design? All the commemoratives had a cap of 30,000 notes, will the NBU go over? Things should shakeout early next year. In the meantime, wrap the 2021 grands up and take a breath, albeit a short one.

Merry Christmas!