After serving as Croatia's currency for more than 28 years, the kuna will be replaced by the euro on 1 January 2023. This means that banknotes worth more than 500 million kuna (€66 million) plus around 5,200 metric tons of coins will have to be destroyed.

The kuna, or HRK, subdivided in 100 lipa, was introduced on 30 May 1994, to replace the Croatian dinar (HRD), which itself was introduced in December 1991 to replace the Yugoslav dinar.

Originally devised as a temporary solution, the dinar was meant to be replaced by a new currency since 1991. In July 1993 the HDZ-led Parliament decided that the new Croatian currency would be called kuna, which was the name of the currency briefly used by the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia during World War II.

“Mr. Tudjman has defended the choice of the kuna as “proof of Croatian sovereignty,” but it is regarded as a political concession to the right wing of his Croatian Democratic Union at a time when his decision to end the Croats’ war against Muslims in Bosnia has led to restiveness among hard-liners,” Roger Cohen reported for The New York Times in May 1994.

A total of 1.570 billion banknotes denominated at 187 billion kuna were printed at the time of the currency’s introduction. Since then, more than 1 billion banknotes worth 104.5 billion kuna were pulled from circulation and destroyed due to wear and tear.

The rest of the banknotes and coins will now be pulled from circulation gradually over the coming months. Although kuna will be used as legal tender only until 15 January, banks will continue exchanging old kuna banknotes with euros indefinitely, while kuna coins will be exchanged until 2025.

Due to the “negative environmental impact of the dye and protective elements on banknotes,” state news platform Hina said, old kuna banknotes will no longer be incinerated but shredded instead and then used as insulation material in construction. The 5,200 metric tons of coins will be melted and sold as raw material.

While all euro banknotes used by all 20 countries in the euro zone share the same design, each country issues coins which have a different design on the reverse, referred to as the “national side.”

The Croatian side of 1¢, 2¢ and 5¢ coins will have the letters “HR” written in the medieval Glagolitic script. The 50¢, 20¢ and 10¢ coins will feature a portrait of the Croatian-born inventor Nikola Tesla. Kuna, which in Croatian means “marten” – a small weasel-like forest animal whose fur is thought to have been used for trade in the early medieval times – will not entirely become a thing of the past. The animal will appear on the back of Croatian €1 coin, while the back of the €2 coin will feature a small map of Croatia.