Coinage of modern Serbia

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The reverse of the 10 dinara coin featured the Studenica Monastery.

This design had not appeared on any Yugoslav coins.

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The Studenica monastery.

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The reverse of the 20 dinara coin featured the Church of Saint Sava.

This design had not appeared on any Yugoslav coins.

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The Church of Saint Sava.

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All the coins shown so far were made of nickel-brass.

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In March 2006, Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Yugoslavia, was found dead in his prison cell in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre in The Hague, Netherlands. He had suffered a heart attack. In life, he had aimed for a Greater Serbia, to bring himself more power. This was despite telling Western politicians in private that he regarded Serbian nationalism as 'a load of crap'. In the end, Serbia gained not an inch of territory, and in 2008 it also lost Kosovo. All that Milošević achieved was the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the country of which he had been president, amid countless atrocities during the Yugoslav wars.

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The new obverse, seen on a 1 dinar coin of 2006.

In 2005 a new series of circulation coins was issued: 1 dinar, and 5 and 10 dinara.

The reverse designs were retained, but they had a new common obverse, showing the Serbian coat of arms.

However, the new 2 dinara coin was not issued until 2006.

And this time no regular 20 dinara was issued. Apparently it was not often seen in circulation.

However, a series of circulating commemorative 20 dinara coins was begun in 2006, featuring famous Serbs.

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The nickel-brass alloy of the coins of 2003 and 2004 was constituted of 70% copper, 18% zinc and 12% nickel.

Of the new series of coins, only the 10 dinara coin had the same mixture of metals.


The 1 dinar, 2 and 5 dinara coins of the new series were made of 70% copper, 24.5% zinc and 0.5% nickel.

This slightly different brass alloy gave the 1 dinar, 2 and 5 dinara coins a slightly different colour.


I will not display these coins here, but I recommend you look at the web page for Serbia on the excellent web site, coinz.eu:

coinz.eu: Serbia

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A reminder of the dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

From Wikipedia:

On Sunday, 21 May 2006, Montenegrins voted in an independence referendum, with 55.5% supporting independence. Fifty-five percent or more of affirmative votes were needed to dissolve the confederation and Yugoslavia. The turnout was 86.3% and 99.73% of the more than 477,000 votes cast were deemed valid.

The subsequent Montenegrin proclamation of independence on 3 June 2006 and the Serbian proclamation of independence on 5 June ended the confederation of Serbia and Montenegro and thus the last remaining vestiges of the former Yugoslavia.

Serbia continued to use the Serbian dinar as before, while Montenegro continued to use the euro, though without being part of the euro zone.

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In 2006 Serbia issued the first of its circulating commemorative 20 dinara coins.

I shall show only this one and no others.

It celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of the renowned Serbian scientist, Nikola Tesla.

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Kosovo declared unilateral independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. Serbia and several other countries regarded this as illegal, and it is still controversial. The ethnic Albanians in Kosovo continue to use the euro, without being part of the euro zone, whilst the minority ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo still use the Serbian dinar.

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From 2009 to 2010, the 1 dinar coin was issued in brass-plated steel. However, a final version of the nickel-brass 1 dinar coin was also issued in 2009.

From 2009 to 2011, the 2 dinara coin was issued in brass-plated steel. However, a final version of the nickel-brass 2 dinara coin was also issued in 2009 and 2010.

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Image courtesy of World Coin News.

In 2011 Serbia amended its coat of arms slightly.

Above you see the lesser coat of arms: the old version and the new version.

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Above is a reminder of the old version of the greater coat of arms.

This is how it appeared on coins of 2010 and earlier.

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This is the new version of the greater coat of arms.

This is how it looked on coins dated 2011 and later.