Ukrainian Philatelic and Numismatic Society

Presentation: Ukrainian Provisionals 1992 to 1995

This is a ‘voiced-over powerpoint’ presentation that is about 2½-hours. Each given slide is different in length as the result of content explanation.

Why the Need for these Provisionals? Primary reasons: a) inadequate supply of national issues due to lack of facilities; strategic USSR assets were ‘centralized’; thus, no modern and secure mint and print facilities in Ukraine; b) inadequate distribution network to all post offices; system had been Russia-centred for several decades; it now had to be reconfigured to Ukraine; Secondary reasons: c) the need to repatriate what had been a russified system; d) inflation-hyperinflation; at the very first minute of 02 January 1992, Ukrainian denomination was 8-to-1; but on 05 December 1993 it was 12,600-to-1, and by 09 December 1994 110,000-to-1. Yikes, and given this ‘trend’, there was a dramatic effect on the postal system and all of its ‘adjuncts’! However such variables, otherwise deleterious, resulted in an interestingly complex postage system and stamp production routine during this period.

Ukraine’s Provisional Kyiv-Lviv-Chernihiv

Provisionals were a way that Ukraine supplemented an inadequate supply of national issues during 1992-1994. All of the provisionals stamp sets were in fact created locally (oblast, city). However, three of the overprinted sets achieved ‘national status’ almost as soon as they were issued, these being overprints of Kyiv, Lviv, and Chernihiv, aka the KLCs.

When Canadian Member of Parliament Borys Wrzesnewskyj attended Ukrainpex 2007, he indicated that he was involved with Kyiv’s Borysfen print shop. The Borysfen print shop in 1992 was responsible for the completion of the original overprinted sets for Kyiv, Lviv, and Chernihiv. The presses originally came from Canada and Wrzesnewskyj had made videos of the journey to get them into Ukraine. There they were first used in their Kyiv ‘underground’ bunker to produce Ukrainian pro-independence and pro-democracy leaflets and posters. As it turns out, the naming of the print shop is attributed to the mother of the young man doing the overprints, being a "fan" or as they say in Ukraine "fen" of Borys.

Canadian Mint issues Ukrainian Pysanka egg-shaped silver coin

The Royal Canadian Mint issued on February 2, 2016 a 1 oz. Fine Silver Coloured Coin "Traditional Ukrainian Pysanka" with a low mintage of 4,000. This is the first-ever egg-shaped coin issued by the Royal Canadian Mint.  Preorders were brisk and the coin sold out before the release date.  

Designed by Canadian artist Ann Morash, this coin captures the intricate beauty of a pysanka. Every element on this Ukrainian Easter egg is rich with symbolic meaning, including the individual colours: yellow stands for youth and purity; red represents the joy and passion in life; green is the colour of spring, which brings hope and renewal; and black suggests the darkest time before dawn, and the idea of eternity.

2015 Ukraine Coin Program

 Coin issue plan for 2015 by the National Bank of Ukraine.