In the 2010 “Numismatic News”, the paper “The last banknotes of SFR Yugoslavia“, in which well-founded indications are presented that the 1991 National Bank of Yugoslavia 5000 dinar emergency banknote featuring the portrait of Ivo Andrić (issued on Dec 23, 1991, for the territory of the then SFRY excluding Slovenia and Croatia, which had in the meantime declared statehood and achieved monetary independence) is actually a modified version of the „first variant“ of the same banknote, about which, at the time of the publication of the previous „Numizmatičke vijesti“, not a single piece of official information was yet known. However, what was completely clear was that, based on the elements of the issued „second variant“, it was certain that a „first variant“ had also existed (or exists), unknown to the general public, which had been previously prepared as a banknote for the regular needs of the entire SFRY.
Meanwhile, during 2011, when the „Numismatic News“ for 2010 had long since been printed and sent out to numismatists, the author of these lines managed, after a series of attempts, to establish direct contact with the National Bank of Serbia. Thanks to the exceptional helpfulness and kindness of the new governor, Mr. Dejan Šoškić, and the Director of the Treasury, Ms. Blaženka Robović, accurate and high-quality information was finally obtained regarding everything that happened concerning the production and emission of banknotes during 1991.
Indications that the 5,000 dinar banknote of the National Bank of Yugoslavia featuring the image of our Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić, emitted from Belgrade on Dec 23, 1991, for the remainder of the then-SFR Yugoslavia (excluding Croatia and Slovenia) with the year 1991 (instead of the previously customary full date), along with the signature of Governor Dušan Vlatković (instead of the then-customary co-signature of the deputy governor in addition to the governor's), without the prefix „SFR“ in the title of the state of Yugoslavia (instead of the name „SFR Yugoslavia“ as on all previously issued NBJ banknotes), and finally without the names of the six Yugoslav republics (previously printed vertically on the left and right sides of the obverse of the banknote on earlier issues) proved to be—correct!
Based on data from the Official Gazettes of the SFRY of that time and the finally obtained precise and documented data from the National Bank of Serbia, it has been confirmed that the „first variant“ of the 5000-dinar banknote of the then National Bank of Yugoslavia featuring the portrait of Ivo Andrić was planned as a denomination that was supposed to follow the 1000-dinar banknote issued on November 26, 1990, featuring the portrait of Nikola Tesla.
Preparation of the new 5000 dinar banknote
Monetary stability in the SFR Yugoslavia began to gradually collapse after a relatively good and foreign-currency-rich tourist season in 1990. Already in the month of November of that year, the previously completely free purchase of foreign currency for dinars at bank counters was suspended. (1) Foreign currency could admittedly still be bought, but not withdrawn, as it was stipulated that the foreign currency purchased in this way had to be time-deposited for at least 6 months. That restriction was not long-lived either, and the free purchase of foreign currency for dinars ceased by the end of 1990, and we entered the new year of 1991 with a devaluation of the dinar from 7 to 9 for 1 German mark. (2) As time would very quickly show, in April 1991, the next devaluation would follow, from 9 to 13 dinars (3) and at the same time, the „black market“ for foreign currency would flourish anew, for the first time since 1989.
In light of the aforementioned circumstances, the then Directorate for Treasury Operations of the National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ), which was responsible for matters related to the issuance of money, sent an order on December 26, 1990, to the Institute for Manufacturing Banknotes and Coins – Topčider, ordering it to prepare a conceptual design for a 5,000 dinar banknote. (4) The order proposed that the portrait of the writer and Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić be featured on the obverse of the banknote, and a motif of Višegrad and the famous bridge on the Drina on the reverse.
From the conceptual design through the proof to the Issuance Decision
Already on February 28, 1991, the Institute for Manufacturing Banknotes and Coins (ZIN) delivered the completed preliminary design of the banknote to the Treasury of the National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ), which defined the banknote format as 167 x 80 mm and a palette of green colors as the fundamental coloration that would set apart, i.e., distinguish, that hitherto largest denomination from other previously produced banknotes of the same series. On March 8, 1991, the NBJ Treasury Directorate informed ZIN that the NBJ Board of Directors had accepted the conceptual design proposal, with the note that the definitive color tones would be determined later, once a trial print was produced.
The banknote was an original work of art; for the obverse D. Andrić FEC, D. Andrić and A. Dimitrijević SC, and for the reverse D. Andrić FEC, and P. Medicijan and R. Obradović SC. (5)
Since at the moment of that approval, namely March 8, 1991, the date to be printed on the banknote had not yet been defined, the trial proof submitted to the NBY Administration for approval featured the printed date of March 1, 1990 (which had previously appeared on the issued 100 and 500 dinar banknotes of the same series) along with the corresponding signatures of Governor Dušan Vlatković and Deputy Governor Mitja Gaspari.
In the archival documentation of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, the chronology of events concerning this banknote further mentions that on May 13, 1991, ZIN requested the NBY Treasury to provide information on the date to be printed on the 5,000 dinar banknote as the only missing element for the start of regular production. On May 15, 1991, the NBY Treasury Directorate delivered a decision to ZIN stating that the date on the new banknote should be September 1, 1991.
And finally, on July 3, 1991, in the „Official Gazette of the SFRY“ No. 51, the National Bank of Yugoslavia publishes the „Decision on the Issuance and Basic Characteristics of the 5000 Dinar Banknote Dated September 1, 1991“ as follows:
1. The NBJ will issue a 5000 dinar banknote.
2. The 5000 dinar banknote will be printed on white security paper, with a built-in watermark and security thread, using offset printing and line intaglio printing techniques.
3. The 5000 dinar banknote will measure 167 x 80 mm.
4. The 5000 dinar banknote looks like this:
a/ obverse: (…) On the left side of the banknote is an engraving of the figure of Ivo Andrić, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, made from a photograph taken in the seventies of his life. In the upper left corner is the name of Ivo Andrić and the years of his birth and death „1892 - 1975“. In the lower left corner is the denomination value „5000“ in negative. In the middle part of the banknote is a guilloche rosette, and in the upper part are texts arranged one below the other: Narodna banka Jugoslavije (in Cyrillic), Narodna banka Jugoslavije (in Latin) and Narodna banka na Jugoslavija (in Cyrillic). Below these texts is the coat of arms of the SFRY. In the lower part of the rosette is the denomination value „5000“, and below it in two rows are the written words „dinara“ (in Cyrillic), „dinara“ (in Latin), „dinarjev“ (in Latin) and „dinari“ (in Cyrillic). On the right side of the banknote, on the white surface in the upper part, is the denomination value „5000“ in negative, and on the margin of the banknote the text „falsifikovanje se kažnjava po zakonu“ (in Cyrillic), and „krivotvorenje se kažnjava po zakonu“ (in Latin)…(…).
b/ on the reverse side: On the left side of the banknote, on the white area in the upper part, there is a denomination mark „5000“ in negative, and on the margin of the banknote the text „ponavljanje se kažnjava po zakonu“ (in Latin script), and „falsifikuvanjeto se kaznuva spored zakonot“ (in Cyrillic script). In the middle part of the white area, embedded in the paper itself, is a watermark with the image of Ivo Andrić, and below the watermark are words written in two rows, on the left: „zamjenik guvernera“ (in Latin script), „zamenik guvernera“ (in Cyrillic script), „namestnik guvernarja“ (in Latin script) and „zamenik guvernera“ (in Cyrillic script), and on the right: „guverner“ (in Cyrillic script) and „guverner“ (in Latin script). Below these texts are facsimile signatures of Deputy Governor M. Gaspari and Governor D. Vlatković, and the words „Beograd“ (in Cyrillic script), „Beograd“ (in Latin script), and „Beograd“ (in Cyrillic script) with the date „1.IX.1991.“.
In the central part of the banknote is a graphically stylized bridge on the Drina in Višegrad, with a panorama of Višegrad…(…)…and in the upper part are words written in two lines: „SFR Yugoslavia“ (in Latin script) and „SFR Yugoslavia“ (in Cyrillic script). In the lower part of the banknote is the denomination „5000“, and below it words written in two lines: „five thousand dinars“ (in Cyrillic script), „five thousand dinars“ (in Latin script), „five thousand dinars“ (in Latin script), and „five thousand dinars“ (in Cyrillic script).
On the left and right sides, in the margins of the offset tones, the texts are printed: „Bosna i Hercegovina – Makedonija – Slovenija – Srbija – Hrvatska – Crna Gora“ (in Cyrillic), and „Bosna i Hercegovina – Makedonija – Slovenija – Srbija – Hrvatska – Crna Gora“ (in Latin script).
5. The obverse and reverse of the banknote are predominantly green.
6. This Decision shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the „Official Gazette of the SFRY“.
No. 195
Belgrade, July 3, 1991.
President of the Board of Governors, Governor of the NBY
Dušan Vlatković, m.p.
Its publication on July 3, 1991, in the „Official Gazette of the SFRY“ is also the last mention of the 5,000-dinar banknote dated September 1, 1991, which, as we know, never entered circulation, and it is not ruled out that it was not even produced in a regular print run, but only in trial proofs dated March 1, 1990, which the NBS possesses today, and a copy of which I received through the courtesy of Mrs. Blaženka Robović, General Director of the NBS Treasury, and Mr. Dejan Šoškić, Governor of the NBS. That received documentation also contains the following data, quote: „...The decision to put the 5,000-dinar banknote into circulation on September 1, 1991, was never made, nor could it have been, given that the Treasury Directorate of the NBJ never issued an order for the production of that banknote...“.
Why did the announced issuance on July 3, 1991, never happen?
The answer to why the 5000 dinar banknote dated September 1, 1991, was not put into circulation lies in the months of May and June 1991, because as stated earlier, on May 15, 1991, the National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ) instructed the Institute for Manufacturing Banknotes and Coins (ZIN) in writing to incorporate the date September 1, 1991, onto the new banknote—whose printing plate had already been produced at that time—as the date on which the banknote would be issued. The events unfolding at lightning speed during those days determined the further fate of the banknote, and the reason for its (non-)issuance was certainly marked by historical events:
– June 25, 1991. The parliaments of Slovenia and Croatia, the highest legislative and representative bodies of the two federal units of the SFR Yugoslavia, declared the severance of all state-legal ties with the SFR Yugoslavia and their state independence.
– June 26, 1991. The Federal Executive Council of the SFR Yugoslavia in Belgrade adopts a „Decision on the issuance of banknotes for “extraordinary needs of the country„„ and simultaneously the exclusion of Slovenia and Croatia from the primary emission of the National Bank of Yugoslavia. Interestingly, that session was not chaired by President Ante Marković, but by Vice President Aleksandar Mitrović. (6)
The available documentation of the National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ) contains a note stating that at that time, due to the dynamics of newly arisen circumstances, orders between the NBJ and the Institute for Manufacturing Banknotes and Coins (ZIN) were issued orally, and therefore no written record of them exists. However, what does have a record are the following facts.
– The printing capacities of ZIN in Belgrade were, in that crucial period for the 5000-dinar banknote of September 1, 1991, up until June 25, 1991 (i.e., until the day when Croatia and Slovenia declared the severance of all state-legal ties with the SFR Yugoslavia and their national independence), occupied with printing banknotes that were in circulation at that time. Thus, at ZIN, the last printed run of the 1000-dinar banknote from November 26, 1990, was packaged with the date April 5, 1991, and series AH; then the 50-dinar banknote from June 1, 1990, was printed, whose last run was packaged with the date April 25, 1991, and series AP; and finally, the 100-dinar banknote from March 1, 1990, whose last printed quantity was packaged with the date June 25, 1991, and series AP. (7)
– Based on the decision of the Federal Executive Council (SIV) of June 25, 1991, regarding the issuance of banknotes „for extraordinary needs of the country,“ the printing capacities of the Institute for Manufacturing Banknotes and Coins (ZIN) were used not for the planned printing of the 5,000 dinar banknote on September 1, 1991, which was certainly scheduled to begin on that day or around those days, but for printing banknotes „for extraordinary needs of the country.“ Due to the rapid sequence of events, the banknotes „for extraordinary needs of the country“ were printed using existing printing plates of the current emission, but with modified print colors, the omission of „SFR“ in the country title „Yugoslavia,“ the removal of the names of the federal republics, the omission of the exact date with only the year of issue „1991“ printed, and the removal of the name of the deputy governor, leaving only the governor's signature. The fact that the printing of these banknotes actually began immediately after June 25, 1991, i.e., following the urgent modification of the printing plates, is supported by the data showing that the delivery of banknotes „for extraordinary needs of the country“ to the vault of the National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ) started on August 1, 1991, with the 500 dinar banknote of 1991 (first print run), continued as early as September 13, 1991, with the 5,000 dinar banknote of 1991, then on September 24, 1991, with the 100 dinar banknote of 1991, further on September 26, 1991, with the 1,000 dinar banknote of 1991, and finally on October 14, 1991, with the 500 dinar banknote of 1991 (second print run). (8)
Thus, already in the first days of July 1991, the printing capacities of ZIN began printing the 500-dinar banknote of 1991 „for extraordinary needs of the country“ bearing the title „Yugoslavia“, after the printing of the 100-dinar banknote of March 1, 1990, bearing the title „SFR Yugoslavia“ was completed on June 25, 1991. The 500-dinar banknote was followed by the 5000-dinar banknote (according to the delivery dynamics, it is certain that printing began as early as mid-July), which means that within those few days, the plate for the 5000-dinar banknote of September 1, 1991, bearing the title „SFR Yugoslavia“ was modified into the plate for the 5000-dinar banknote of 1991 bearing the title „Yugoslavia“.
The intriguing question is: was a copy of the 5,000 dinar banknote dated September 1, 1991, nevertheless „run through“ ZIN's printing presses in those first few days of July 1991, even though no order for the start of regular production was issued by the NBJ Treasury? Up to the time of writing this paper, not a single copy of that banknote has surfaced, which does not mean that one might not appear someday.
Indeed, in that context, I would like to review two banknotes that appear on the collector's market, which were undoubtedly printed in those first days of July 1991, and in my personal opinion actually represent proposals for banknotes „for the extraordinary needs of the country“ that would be printed in the coming days of that time. They are:
– 100 dinars 1.III.1990. in olive-green color, therefore a color identical to the issued 100 dinars banknote „for extraordinary needs of the country“ from 1991, but which retained the date and all federal elements of the SFR Yugoslavia and in that is completely identical to the issued 100 dinars banknote of 1.III.1990. in golden-yellow color.
– 500 dinars dated March 1, 1990, in orange, thus in a color identical to the 500-dinars banknote „for extraordinary needs of the country“ issued in 1991, which retained the date but had all federal elements of the SFR Yugoslavia removed compared to the issued 500-dinars banknote dated March 1, 1990, in blue.
Personally, I think it is a matter of (partially accepted) Proposal 1 and Proposal 2 of banknotes „for extraordinary needs of the country.“ Proposal 1 (100 dinars) resulted in the adopted color, and Proposal 2 (500 dinars), in addition to the color, also had the federal elements of „SFR Yugoslavia“ removed. A very small number of these specimens were printed and appeared on the collector's market, more rarely with the serial number AA 0000000, and most often without a printed serial number.
And that is how the series of banknotes „for extraordinary needs of the country“ bearing 1991 as the year of issue was created.
Conclusion
Therefore, according to all available information, the solution to the enigma of the 5000 dinar banknote dated September 1, 1991, lies definitively in the first days of July 1991, between the printing of the 100 dinar banknote for regular circulation dated March 1, 1990, of „SFR Yugoslavia“ and the 500 dinar banknote „for extraordinary needs of the country“ of 1991 of „Yugoslavia,“ during the period when the previously mentioned proposals 1 and 2 were printed. Specifically, if the printing of those proposals took place between the end of the printing of the regular emission of the 100 dinar banknote dated March 1, 1990 (printed until June 25, 1991) and the beginning of the printing of the 500 dinar banknote „for extraordinary needs of the country“ of 1991 (at the latest by mid-July), it is certain that within those few days, at least a few copies of the 5000 dinar banknote dated September 1, 1991, could have been printed, and the fact that (for now) not a single one has appeared on the collector's market does not mean that one will not.
Notes
(1) „Dubrovačka banka“ Dubrovnik, archive of regulations and decisions on foreign exchange operations
(2) NBS exchange rate list for January 1, 1991.
(3) NBY exchange rate list for April 20, 1991.
(4) Information obtained in written form courtesy of the Director of the NBS Treasury, Ms. Blaženka Robović
(5) FEC Lat. „fecit“ or author of the drawing, SC Latin „sculptor“ or engraver
(6) By its decision of Dec 24, 1991, the Council of Governors of the NBJ book-keeping-wise „debited“ the NBH in the amount of 46,867,828,460 dinars, which was the estimated amount of money in circulation found there, and the Republic of Slovenia as early as Oct 16, 1991, in the amount of 27,300,000,000 dinars. The amounts in question refer to circulating denominations of 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 dinars.
(7) Information obtained courtesy of Mr. Vitomir Čop from the Numismatic Society of Slovenia, who managed to collect and record, according to packaging dates, original bundles of dinar banknotes originally from the ZIN printing facility, originally unpacked. Each packaged bundle bears the printing date, and the print dates are faithfully constructed.
(8) Information obtained in written form courtesy of NBS Treasury Director Ms. Blaženka Robović
Author: Ivan Škrabo
Source: Numizmatičke vijesti, HND, Zagreb, 2011.
Photos: Serbia-money.ru (no longer active)
