The Croatian Kuna, after being used as the official currency for more than 28 years, will be replaced by the Euro on New Year's Day, and more than 500 million banknotes and about 5,200 tons of coins will be sent to machines for cutting and melting.

Kunas and lipas were introduced as the official currency of Croatia on the 30th of May 1994.

In total, one billion and 570 million pieces of all banknotes with a value of 187 billion Kuna were printed. Although the Croatian National Bank points out that even though Kuna are high-quality banknotes, they wear out with use, so more than one billion banknotes worth 104.5 billion Kuna have been withdrawn and destroyed so far.

The most printed denomination was the 200 Kuna, then the 100 Kuna and finally the 10 Kuna. In recent years, 200 Kuna and 10 Kuna banknotes were the most used. They remained the same in terms of design, but received new protective threads.

Just like any other country in Europe the amount of cash transactions has fallen as card transactions have increased. Half of all the transactions in Croatia are now card transactions.

So what will happen to the mass of Kunas left?

Due to negative environmental reasons, the mixture of colour on the banknotes and protective elements, the replaced banknotes will not be burned, but shredded by cutting into pieces smaller than a millimetre, and this mass will be used as insulation in public construction works. Also, 5,200 tons of remaining coins, which are expected to be returned, will be sold as raw material, melted down and used for other purposes.