NBU assures that purchase of equipment for destroying coins not related to renaming of kopecks to shahs

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) assures that the purchase of equipment for destroying coins is not related to the renaming of kopecks to shahs.

This is stated in the NBU's message, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Also, no additional production or organizational and technical costs are expected from the NBU. All costs will be incurred within the already foreseen operating costs for the production of banknotes and coins and the disposal of unusable cash withdrawn from circulation," the NBU noted.

After the National Bank puts into circulation change coins denominated in shahs, a simultaneous withdrawal of kopecks is not planned.

Since the "50 shahs" and "50 kopecks" coins will be in circulation in parallel, the withdrawal of the latter from circulation and their disposal is not currently expected.

At the same time, the regulator noted that specialized equipment from the manufacturer Monea, the M60-Decoiner 600 brand, for the destruction of coins is currently being purchased. This process began back in 2024.

But this purchase is in no way connected with the initiative regarding steps. This is about the NBU's usual operational activities.

"Since 2019, we have been withdrawing from circulation coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5 and 25 kopecks, which have ceased to be means of payment. During this time, significant volumes of coins unfit for circulation have accumulated - about 800 tons. Coins continue to arrive, because we have extended the term for their withdrawal (until the end of martial law and another 90 days after that)," the National Bank emphasized.

Additionally, coins in denomination of 10 kopecks began to arrive from circulation, the gradual withdrawal of which began in October 2025.

Last year, 3.1 million coins of this denomination were already withdrawn. According to calculations, 5-6% of 10-kopeck coins may return to cash circulation, which is about 420 tons.

That is, the total volume of coins that will need to be recycled will be over 1,200 tons.

Over the next two to three years, the NBU will be able to receive up to UAH 153 million in income from the sale of scrap coins destroyed. And this significantly exceeds the costs of purchasing new equipment (its cost is EUR 252,300 or UAH 12.6 million).

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on December 18, the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading a bill on renaming the kopeck into a shag.

The NBU states that almost 14 billion coins are currently in circulation in Ukraine.

In fact, in the future, for some time (3-4 years), only 50 shah coins will be issued, approximately several tens of millions of pieces.

On November 5, National Bank Governor Andrii Pyshnyi said that Ukraine plans to replace its kopeck coins with "shahs" by the end of the year to get rid of the symbol of Moscow's former dominance.