2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16
Starting a conversation about the currency of Latvia, we should mention the country itself, its ethnic past, history and status.
A bit of history
The country got its name thanks to the ethnic name of the people living there - latvieshi. Latvia is located on a territory equal to almost 65 thousand square kilometers, on the eastern coast of the B altic Sea. It is divided into 26 counties and has 7 municipalities. This is a country of parliamentary government. It is headed by the President, elected by the Parliament for a term not exceeding three years. Almost two and a half million people live in the country.
During the existence of the country, the system, its history, Latvia itself has changed. The currency also underwent changes.
Repshik
In Soviet times, when Latvia was part of the USSR, the country's currency was the usual Soviet ruble. After the collapse of the state and obtaining the status of an independent state, a temporary monetary unit appeared in Latvia - the Latvian ruble.
The Latvian ruble was popularly nicknamed "repshik". It was printed on plain paper, without special security symbols. Even the ink on the number blurred when printed. They named those banknotes in honor of the head of the National Central Bank of Latvia, Einar Repshe.
In thoseAt times it was believed that Latvia was protected from forgery of banknotes, the currency was signed by Repshe. Now it looks ridiculous and funny. It was elementary to counterfeit the Latvian ruble of the times of 1992-1993 by printing "repshiki" on ordinary printers. However, surprisingly, the Latvian ruble was not often counterfeited - it was not a means of international settlements.
Despite these facts, in those days the national currency of Latvia was stable, unlike the Russian and Belarusian rubles. There was no strong inflation in Latvia at that time. In those days, the former Soviet rubles were loaded onto wagons and taken away in an unknown direction, thereby giving rise to new oligarchs in the Russian Federation.
Lat
The age of "repshik" was short-lived. In 1993, the local currency was replaced by lats. They were exchanged at the rate: 1 lats=200 Latvian rubles. The exchange proceeded smoothly, without crisis situations, from March 5 to June 28, 1993.
Latvian currency consisted of banknotes and coins with different denominations. These were coins with different values: from 1 centime to 2 lats. Paper banknotes were the national currency with denominations ranging from 5 to 500 lats. Each lat consisted of 100 santims. Latvia owes ten years of stability to the lat, this currency was able to survive difficult situations. During this ten-year period, commemorative commemorative coins made of precious and non-precious metal alloys were issued in the country.
These were coins made of silver, cupronickel, gold and a mixture of silver and niobium. Per99 coins were minted in the country for a decade of "circulation" of the lat, which are already unique.
In 2004, Latvia was accepted into NATO, in the same period it became a full member of the European Union.
Since 2005, the lats have been fully pegged to the euro, which has remained unchanged for a long time. This lasted until the moment when the European exchange rate support mechanism began to work. As a result, the actual deviation of the national currency from the target was only 1%.
Euro
What is the currency in Latvia now? Since mid-January 2014, Latvia has completely switched to cash payments in euros. The transition was virtually painless and took place from the end of 2013 until January 14, 2014. And from January 1, at retail outlets and other places of settlement, payments were made in two currencies: lats and euros.
Now the “reign period” of Lata is over. Throughout the country, the euro has long been used in settlements - the common monetary unit of the countries of the European Union. During the first half of 2015, Latvia is the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. In honor of this event, coins dedicated to Latvia were issued. What Latvia can be proud of at the moment is the currency, which is the euro, unshakable and solvent in any corner of the planet Earth.
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