Coinage of North Macedonia

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Skopje, capital city of North Macedonia.

From Wikipedia:

North Macedonia (Macedonia until February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a country in the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It gained its independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. A landlocked country, North Macedonia has borders with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. The capital and largest city, Skopje, is home to roughly a quarter of the country's 2.06 million inhabitants. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Bosniaks, and Aromanians.

The history of the region dates back to antiquity, beginning with the kingdom of Paeonia, presumably a mixed Thraco-Illyrian polity. In the late sixth century BC, the area was subjugated by the Persian Achaemenid Empire, then incorporated into the kingdom of Macedonia in the fourth century BC. The Romans conquered the region in the second century BC and made it part of the larger province of Macedonia. The area remained part of the Byzantine Empire, but was often raided and settled by Slavic tribes beginning in the sixth century of the Christian era. Following centuries of contention between the Bulgarian, Byzantine, and Serbian Empire, it was part of the Ottoman dominion from the mid-14th until the early 20th century, when, following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, the modern territory of North Macedonia came under Serbian rule.

During the First World War (1915–1918), it was ruled by Bulgaria, but after the end of the war it returned to being under Serbian rule as part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Later, during the Second World War (1941–1944), it was ruled by Bulgaria again. However, in 1945 it was established as a constituent state of communist Yugoslavia, and it remained so until its peaceful secession in 1991. The country became a member of the United Nations in April 1993, but as a result of a dispute with Greece over the name "Macedonia", it was admitted under the provisional description "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (abbreviated as "FYR Macedonia" or "FYROM"). In June 2018, Macedonia and Greece resolved the dispute with an agreement that the country should rename itself "Republic of North Macedonia". This renaming came into effect in February 2019.

A unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, North Macedonia is a member of the UN, NATO, Council of Europe, World Bank, OSCE, CEFTA, and the WTO. Since 2005, it has also been a candidate for joining the European Union. North Macedonia is an upper-middle-income country and has undergone considerable economic reform since independence in developing an open economy. North Macedonia is a developing country, ranking 82nd on the Human Development Index, and it provides a social security, universal health care system, and free primary and secondary education to its citizens.

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MACEDONIA AND YUGOSLAVIA

After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slovenia and Croatia opted to join with Serbia and Montenegro in the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes". In 1929 the new country officially changed its name to Yugoslavia ("Land of the South Slavs"). Macedonia, the country now known as North Macedonia, was also a constituent part of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia was inherently unstable because of the various differences of its nationalities. Serbia was the dominant nationality within the heavily centralised country, and this was resented by the other nationalities. Ethnic tensions rose throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and Hitler used these to divide and rule Yugoslavia after he invaded it in 1941.

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Marshal Tito.

After Tito's communist Partisans liberated Yugoslavia from the Nazis, Tito turned Yugoslavia into a unified federal communist state. He avoided the brutal oppression often seen in other communist countries, and he was careful to respect the different nationalities of his citizens. His popularity with the majority of Yugoslavs meant that he was a unifying force, but after his death ethnic tensions rose once more.

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Slobodan Milosevic in 1989.

In 1987 Slobodan Milosevic began to champion Serb domination within Yugoslavia. This, combined with the new freedoms in Communist Europe (a response to the democratic reforms of Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev), caused a rise in nationalism in the other republics of Yugoslavia, who did not wish to be dominated by Milosevic and his Serbs. Additionally, the Slovenes, along with the Croats, were the most modern and prosperous of the Yugoslav republics, and they resented having to subsidise the other republics.

From Wikipedia (abridged):

In September 1989 numerous constitutional amendments were passed to introduce parliamentary democracy to Slovenia. On 7 March 1990, the Slovenian Assembly changed the official name of the state to the "Republic of Slovenia". In April 1990 the first democratic national election in Slovenia took place, and the united opposition movement DEMOS led by Jože Pučnik emerged victorious.

On 23 December 1990 the electorate voted for a sovereign and independent Slovenia. On 25 June 1991 Slovenia declared its independence, and Croatia did likewise on the same day. On 27 June in the early morning, the Yugoslav People's Army (YNA) dispatched its forces to Slovenia, leading to The Ten-Day War. Several YNA troops deserted, as they did not want to kill fellow Yugoslavs.

Despite this, the YNA thought the Slovenes would back down, but Slovenia had made serious military preparations in anticipation of just such a conflict. The world watched in amazement as the mighty YNA was forced to leave little Slovenia. On 7 July the Brijuni Agreement was signed, implementing a truce and a three-month halt of the enforcement of Slovenia's independence. At the end of the month, the last YNA soldiers left Slovenia.

Slovenia was now safe, but the various wars in Yugoslavia continued until 1995. In that same year the BBC broadcast a superb documentary series, entitled "The Death of Yugoslavia".  It revealed that the YNA had invaded Slovenia on its own authority, but Milosevic ordered it to withdraw, because there were very few Serbs in that republic. Prior to that, Milosevic and the YNA had aimed to keep Yugoslavia together. From then on, Milosevic pursued a policy of a "Greater Serbia".

Meanwhile, Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on 8 September 1991. However, because the ethnic Serb population of Macedonia was slightly less than 2%, Milosevic left Macedonia alone, even as he pursued wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

See: Yugoslav Wars.

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Here you see the successor states of Yugoslavia, after its eventual breakup.

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The wider region known as Macedonia.

The problem for the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia was its name. It was too political.

Macedonia is also the name of a wider region that is considered to include parts of Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo.

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Greece, 100 drachme, 2000.

Greece in particular objected to the existence of a country named Macedonia.

So, for many years the new republic was referred to as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM for short.

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Coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia, 1991 to 2009.

Upon independence in 1991, the Republic of Macedonia retained the Emblem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, 1946 to 1991, as it coat of arms. However, it changed the red poppies at bottom left and right to a brown colour.

From Wikipedia:

The national emblem depicts two curved garlands of sheaves of wheat, tobacco leaves and opium poppy fruits, tied by a ribbon decorated with embroidery of traditional Macedonian folk motifs. In the center of the ovoid frame are depicted a mountain, a lake and a sunrise.

The features of the national coat of arms contain a rising sun which symbolizes freedom, the Šar Mountains with its peak named Ljuboten or Mount Korab and the river Vardar, with Lake Ohrid. The emblem also contains opium poppy fruits; this poppy was brought to the area during Ottoman times in the first half of the 19th century.

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Flag of the Republic of Macedonia from 1992 to 1995.

In 1991, Todor Petrov, president of the nationalist organization World Macedonian Congress, who supports the controversial antiquization-policy, proposed the Vergina Sun as the national symbol of the then Republic of Macedonia. On 11 August 1992, the newly independent Republic of Macedonia adopted the new flag to replace the old Communist "red star" insignia. The flag depicted the "Vergina Sun" symbol, a stylised yellow sun centred on a red field with eight main and eight secondary rays emanating from the sun, tapering to a point. This ancient symbol was named after the Greek town where it had been discovered in archaeological excavations of the ancient Macedonian city of Aigai. The new flag immediately caused controversy with Greece, which objected to it. More about that later in the topic.

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INTRODUCTION OF THE DENAR

From Wikipedia:

The Republic of Macedonia chose the denar as its currency. It is subdivided into one hundred deni. The first denar was established on 26 April 1992. It replaced the 1990 version of the Yugoslav dinar at par. No coins were issued for the first denar.

In May 1993, the currency was reformed. A new denar was introduced, with one new denar being equal to 100 old denari. Coins for the second denar were introduced in denominations of 50 deni, 1, 2, and 5 denari. The initial designs were created by Dimche Boshkoski and Snezhana Atanasova.

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The obverse of the brass 50 deni coin featured a black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus).

The 50 deni was issued in 1993 only, because it was later rendered redundant by high inflation.


The legends on the Macedonian coins are all in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Slav countries that are majority Catholic use the Latin alphabet.

Slav countries that are majority Orthodox use the Cyrillic alphabet.

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The obverse of the 1 denar coin features the Sarplaninac dog, also known as an Illyrian or Macedonian sheepdog.

This nickel-brass alloy type of the coin was issued from 1993 to 2014.


To my knowledge, otherwise only Ireland and Norway ever featured a dog on their regular circulation coins.

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The Sarplaninac dog.

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The obverse of the 2 denari coin features the Lake Ohrid brown trout (Salmo letnica).

This brass alloy type of the coin was issued from 1993 to 2014.

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The obverse of the 5 denari coin features the Balkan lynx.

The animal is an endangered subspecies of the Eurasian lynx.

This nickel-brass alloy type of the coin was issued from 1993 to 2014.