Special facts about Belarusian ruble
The Belarusian ruble is the currency of Belarus. The symbol of Belarusian ruble is Br and the ISO 4217 code used to denote it is BYR. The ruble can be further subdivided into 100 kapeykas.
Soviet ruble used to be the currency of Belarus before Belarus got merged with the Soviet Union. In the 1990s¸ when Belarus was separated from the Soviet¸ the currency code of the Belarusian ruble became BYB and it had the exchange rate of 10 Soviet rublei for 1 Belarusian ruble. It took two years after Belarus got independence that the Belarusian ruble to get recognized as the official currency of the nation.
The Belarusian ruble is tied to the the United States dollar instead of the Russian ruble¸ as announced by the Central Bank of the Republic of Belarus in 2008.
Belarusian ruble Coin and Banknote types: The Evolution
First ruble¸ 1992–2000
The Belarusian government decided to issue their own national currency for the first time as goods needed to be traded in the market and the Belarusian unit of the USSR State Bank was not authorized to print Soviet banknotes. This was aimed at easing the situation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Though the Soviet ruble was in circulation until May 1992¸ they got replaced by the notes issued by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus in the May of 1992. The ISO 4217 code that was assigned to the currency during that time was BYB.
The banknotes that were issued during that time were in the denominations of 50 kapeykas¸ and 1¸ 3¸ 5¸ 10¸ 25¸ 50¸ 100¸ 200¸ 500¸ 1000 and 5000 rublei. 20¸000 rublei followed in the year 1994 and 50¸000 rublei¸ 100¸000 rublei¸ 500¸000 rublei and 1 and 5 million rublei in 1995¸ 1996¸ 1998 and 1999 respectively.
Second ruble¸ 2000-
The second version of the Belarusian ruble was introduced in the year 2000 with the ISO 4217 code of BYR. The exchange rate was 1 new ruble = 1000 old rublei. Only banknotes were introduced in the second ruble; though some coins were also issued¸ those were only commemoratives for collectors.
The notes that were issued in 2000 were of the denominations 1¸ 5¸ 10¸ 20¸ 50¸ 100¸ 500¸ 1000 and 5000 rublei. Notes of higher denominations¸ like 10¸000¸ 20¸000 and 50¸000 rublei were issued in 2001. Also the banknote of the highest denomination 100¸000 rublei was introduced in 2005.
There were rumours of a third ruble and a monetary reformation by the end of 2009. But the NBRB soon dismissed them calling them as ‘only rumours’.
Currency Exchange Rate to other World Famous Currencies like US¸ UK etc
As of February 23rd¸ 2011¸ the currency exchange rates of Belarusian ruble to the currencies of US and UK are:
1.00 USD = 3¸022.00 BYR
1.00 GBP = 4¸889.20 BYR
However¸ the values are floating¸ and the exchange rates always tend to change according to the money market trends.
Official Website Details for Belarusian ruble
You can check the official website for Belarusian ruble at www.nbrb.by for more information on the currency.
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