Croatian kuna

Croatian kuna
kn
The kuna (sign: kn; code: HRK) was the currency of Croatia from 30 May 1994 until 31 December 2022. It was replaced by the euro (€, EUR) in 2023. The kuna was subdivided into 100 lipa. It was issued by the Croatian National Bank and the coins were minted by the Croatian Mint.

In Croatian, the word kuna means "marten" and lipa means "linden (lime) tree", both references to their historical use in medieval trading.

During Middle Ages, there's records of a tax and/or a currency in the then highly valued marten skins, which were recorded as marturina ("marten tax") or kunovina, in Lower Pannonia (today in Hungary and Slavonia). Slavonia's first minted currency was the frizatik, but in the 13th century the Ban of Slavonia issued a marten-adorned silver coin called the banovac.

The idea of a kuna currency reappeared in 1939 when the Banovina of Croatia, an autonomous province established within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, planned to issue its own money, along with the Yugoslav dinar. In 1941, when the Ustasha regime formed the Independent State of Croatia, they introduced the Independent State of Croatia kuna. This currency remained in circulation until 1945, when it – along with competing issues by the communist Partisans – disappeared with the establishment of FPR Yugoslavia and was replaced by the Yugoslav dinar.

The plural form of kuna in Croatian is kune. It can vary because of different number declension rules, e.g. 2 kune, 10 kuna.

It has no relation to the various Slavic currencies named "koruna" (translated as kruna in Croatian) which means "crown".

Country
  • Croatia