Countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet

[<k>]

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS~1 Ruble 1924 (Image by Zantetsuken).

As the successor state of the Russian Empire, the USSR used the Russian alphabet. In the 1930s, Stalin began a campaign of Russification, and all the republics of the Soviet Union were required to use the Russian alphabet.

[<k>]

Ukraine, 1 hryvnia, 2005.

Nowadays in Europe, Cyrillic script is used by Slav countries where the Orthodox church is the predominant religion.

[<k>]

Ukraine, 2 roubles, 2000.

Such countries often include the Latin alphabet on their collector coins.

[<k>]

Belarus uses Cyrillic script on its coins, but it issues only collector coins.

[<k>]

Modern Russia has retained Cyrillic script, of course.

[<k>]

Transnistria broke away from Moldova in the 1990s. It has a population of at least 60% Slavs (ethnic Russians and Ukrainians) and uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

 

[<k>]

Bulgaria, 2 leva, 1992.

Bulgaria also uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

[<k>]

Yugoslavia used both Cyrillic and Latin script on its coins. The Catholic-Orthodox schism more or less split the country in two: Slovenia and Croatia traditionally used the Latin alphabet, whilst Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia used Cyrillic script. Bosnia was biscriptal. The cultural and sectarian differences eventually caused the break-up of Yugoslavia.

[<k>]

Another example of the two alphabets on Yugoslav coins.

[<k>]

Surprisingly, Serbia's modern coins are still biscriptal. Perhaps this is because there is a large ethnic Hungarian population in Vojvodina, in northern Serbia. According to Wikipedia, Serbs often use the Latin alphabet when writing, but I do not know how true this is.

 

[<k>]

It is less surprising to find that Bosnia's coins are biscriptal.

[<k>]

Macedonia generally uses only Cyrillic script on its coins, but it sometimes uses the Latin alphabet on special issues, especially if they ar part of an international programme.

[<k>]

Kazakhstan 20 tenge 1996.

Some Central Asian states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union, still use the Cyrillic alphabet. Kazakhstan is one of them, but Turkmenistan has always used the Latin alphabet since independence.

[<k>]

Kyrgyzstan, 10 som, 2009.

Kyrgyzstan also uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Its name is difficult enough to spell in the Latin alphabet, so perhaps it is just as well.

[<k>]

Tajikistan: 1 somoni and 5 dirham, 2011.

Tajikistan uses Cyrillic script too.