The National Bank of Ukraine said it will revise the denomination lettering on the new UAH 2,000 banknote honoring Vasyl Stus after public discussion over a stylistic similarity between lettering created by its designers and an unofficial Cyrillic adaptation of a font of Russian origin. The bank said that, regardless of the technical and legal position, any association between the banknote’s design and the work of a citizen of the aggressor state is unacceptable. The updated lettering will be created in full alignment with the official Cyrillic version of the Bickham Script font, without custom variations. The National Bank of Ukraine added that it did not use the font package in question and that banknote lettering is produced by its designers from scratch in a secure software environment using licensed font elements only as a baseline, with custom artwork used as part of its security approach. The revised lettering will be applied to the new UAH 2,000 banknotes. Because the banknote has not yet entered production, the design change will not affect the release timetable, and the banknote remains scheduled to enter circulation on 4 September 2026.
National Bank of Ukraine2026-07-15
National Bank of Ukraine updates lettering on new UAH 2,000 banknote after concerns over similarity to Russian-origin font
The National Bank of Ukraine will change the denomination lettering on the new UAH 2,000 banknote after criticism that it resembled an unofficial Cyrillic adaptation of a font of Russian origin. The revised design will follow the official Cyrillic version of Bickham Script without custom variations. The banknote is still due to enter circulation on 4 September 2026.