The Forum is back up and working again for me! Yes! 

Anyway, there has been some news from Ukraine over the 4-week break. In the past month two new notes were released, with one sporting the signature of the new Governor of the NBU, Andriy Pyshnyy. 

On Dec. 12 the NBU put into circulation 100 Hryven notes dated 2022 and bearing the signature of the newly appointed Governor. This was a quick turnaround from appointment, Oct. 7th, to new notes, Dec 12th, I'm sure some U.S. collectors would be jealous at the quick turnaround although it did only take three months once new Treasure Malerba was sworn in. The note is of the same design as previous 100 Hyrven notes, design of 2015, and is the only denomination issued so far with the Pyshnyy signature. We'll see how quickly the other denominations are released and if any others will be dated 2022 or if the rest will be dated for the current or upcoming years. I have to say that the Pyshnyy signature is fantastic, bold, flowing, legible, probably the best signature to date on modern Ukrainian notes. This should end up being Pick # 126d once one is assigned.

Signature of Governor Pyshnyy.

The second new note released (Dec. 29th) was the 500 Hryven banknote commemorating the 300th Anniversary of Hryhoriy Skovoroda's birth. The commemorative note is of the same design as previous 500 Hryven notes, design of 2015, and bears the official symbol of the 300th anniversary celebration. The celebration symbol/logo is located directly over the watermark, similar to the 30th anniversary notes of 2021, and was applied by screen printing with optically variable ink. The logo depicts a silhouette of the sage/poet Skovoroda along with the text СВІТ СКОВОРОДИ (The world of Skovoroda). Interestingly enough the notes are all dated 2021 and bear the signature of the previous NBU Governor Kyril Shevchenko, I suspected that these notes would have Shevchenko's signature but thought that they would be dated 2022. I'm not sure why notes dated 2021 were used, must of just had some laying around.  I believe this note will be assigned Pick # 132a when the dust settles. 

The Skovoroda commemorative has a print run of 50k, with 30k being sold in souvenir packaging, 554 UAH ($15.06), and 20k sold in plain NBU envelopes, 541 UAH ($14.71). All notes have the prefix ГС with the serial numbers ranging from 0000001 - 0050000, I'll be looking for some fancy # notes, binary specifically. 

Other Ukrainian banknote news includes the NBU bumping the release of the planned 20 Hryven commemorative banknote "The Russian-Ukrainian War. We Will Not Forgive!" from December 2022 to February 2023, I imagine this note will have the Pyshnyy signature and be dated 2023 but we'll see. Also scheduled in 2023 is another 20 Hryven commemorative banknote "Long Live Ukraine", the anticipated release is in December with a run of 300k.

It's good to be back.