Latvia: Currency yesterday and today

Starting a conversation about the currency of Latvia, one should mention the country itself, its ethnic past, history and status.

A bit of history

The name of the country was received due to the ethnic name of the people living there, - latvieshi. Latvia is located on the territory, which is almost 65 thousand square kilometers, on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It is divided into 26 counties and has 7 municipalities. This is a country of parliamentary government. At its head - the President, elected by Parliament for a period of not more than three years. Almost two and a half million inhabitants live on the territory of the country.

During the existence of the country, the system changed, its history, Latvia itself. The currency also underwent changes.

Repshik

In the Soviet era, when Latvia was part of the USSR, the currency of the country was the usual Soviet ruble. After the disintegration of the state and the receipt of the status of an independent state, a temporary monetary unit appeared in Latvia - the Latvian ruble.

The Latvian ruble in the people was nicknamed "репшиком". It was printed on plain paper, without special protective symbols. Even the ink on the room blurred when printing. Called those banknotes so in honor of the head of the National Central Bank of Latvia Einar Repse. In those days, it was believed that from the forgery of banknotes protected Latvia, the currency was signed by Repshe. Now it looks ridiculous and ridiculous. The Latvian ruble of 1992-1993 was faked, printing "repshiki" on ordinary printers. However, surprisingly, the Latvian ruble was forged infrequently - it was not a means of international settlements.

Despite these facts, at that time the national currency of Latvia was stable, in contrast to Russian and Belarusian rubles. In Latvia, then, there was no strong inflation. In those days, former Soviet rubles were unloaded into wagons and taken to an unknown destination, giving rise to new oligarchs in the Russian Federation.

Lat

Century "репшика" was short. In 1993, the local currency was replaced by lats. They exchanged at the rate: 1 LVL = 200 Latvian rubles. The exchange took place smoothly, without crisis situations, from March 5 to June 28, 1993.

The Latvian currency was banknotes and coins with different denominations. These were coins with different values: from 1 centime to 2 lat. Paper banknotes were a national currency with a par value of 5 to 500 lats. Each armor consisted of 100 centimes. Ten years of stability Latvia owes Latvia, this currency was able to survive difficult situations. During this ten-year period, commemorative commemorative coins from precious and non-precious metal alloys were put into circulation. These were coins made of silver, nickel silver, gold and a mixture of silver and niobium. For a decade of "walking" lat in the country, 99 coins were minted, which are already unique now.

In 2004, Latvia was admitted to NATO, at the same time it became a full member of the European Union.

Since 2005, the rate of the lat was completely tied to the euro, which for a long time remained unchanged. This lasted until the moment when the European mechanism for supporting exchange rates did not work. As a result, the actual deviation of the national currency from the given one was only 1%.

Euro

What is the currency in Latvia now? Since mid-January 2014, Latvia has completely switched to cash settlements in euros. The transition was almost painless and occurred from the end of 2013 until January 14, 2014. And since January 1, in shopping centers and other places of payment, payment was made in parallel in two currencies: lats and euros.

Now the "period of rule" of the lat is behind. Throughout the country has long been used in calculating the euro - the common monetary unit of the countries of the European Commonwealth. During the first half of 2015 Latvia is the Chairman of the Council of the European Union. In honor of this event, coins dedicated to Latvia were issued. What Latvia at the moment can be proud of is a currency that is a euro, unshakable and solvent in every corner of the planet Earth.