Good thing that unifies us: convertible mark - we all love it

The story of the convertible mark is a credible argument that there is a good thing that unifies us. We all love the convertible mark equally, because we can trust it. It has never let us down.

On this day exactly 23 years ago, the first banknotes in denominations of KM 20, KM 50 and KM 100 were printed. On July 27, 1998, banknotes were presented to the citizens, which, in addition to their value, also differed in the characters and motifs that featured them.

Wishing to have them equally accepted in both BH Entities, banknotes were made in two versions. Texts in Latin and Cyrillic were written on both versions. Thus, KM 20 denomination, printed in the version for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was dominated by the portrait of the writer Antun Branko Simić, while Filip Višnjić portrait was printed on banknotes that were initially put in circulation in the territory of Republika Srpska. The 50 KM banknote, colloquially "petobanka", also has two versions. One with the portrait of the poet Musa Ćazim Ćatić, and the other version reminds us forever of the great Jovan Dučić. Portraits of writers Nikola Šop and Petar Kočić were featuring two versions of the 100 KM banknote.

And after that, the convertible mark told us a completely different story. Perhaps in minutes, at most hours, it has been possible to measure how many printed banknotes remained in the part of the territory of BH where they were initially put in circulation. Soon, all variants of banknotes circulated throughout the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Nowadays, money continuously circulates without distinction in the financial flows of the state, and the story of the two versions will forever remind us that true value knows no division. All banknotes, except the one of KM 200, which has a unique design and with the image of Ivo Andrić, were made in the Francois-Charles Oberthur, printing house in Paris.

The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina put in circulation and withdraw domestic currency banknotes, convertible marks, in strict compliance with the rules of the Currency Board, established by the Law on the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The official exchange rate for the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one convertible mark for 0.511292 euros, or one euro is 1.955830 convertible marks.

We remind you that until then, numerous currencies were used in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In one part of the country, BH dinar was used, in the another the Serbian dinar, and in the third the Croatian kuna, but in the whole territory the Deutsche mark had equal confidence.

This fact had a great influence on the choice of the our common currency name, while the monetary policy model Currency Board defined the Deutsche mark as the anchor currency at the beginning, and later the euro.

With the establishment of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the conditions for the introduction of a single currency for the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been achieved. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been performing all its tasks flawlessly for 23 years, and its primary goal is the stability of the domestic currency.

In the same way as the 20 years existence of the CBBH Payment Systems is a fact, confirming the thesis that in our country the systems can function in line with the highest world standards, and that there is no excuse for any deviation from the excellence, so as the story of the convertible mark is a credible argument that the good thing may unify us. We all love convertible marks equally because we can trust them. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the convertible mark have never failed on us.