Following Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on March 1, 1992, the first Bosnian Dinar was released in July 1992, replacing the 1990 issues of the Yugoslav Dinar. These first issues were the 1990 Yugoslavian dinar overstamped in various sizes and color inks over the watermark area.
On April 7, 1992, an enclave of Serbian regions broke away from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Backed by the Serbian militias and the Yugoslav People’s Army, the enclave instituted the Republika Srpska with Banja Luka as its capital. When the war became more and more intense, the country experienced a shortage of banknotes, forcing the isolated areas to issue their own notes for local circulation. These emergency notes were called “doves” as it features the national bird in its upper center. The notes were hand stamped with “novcani bon” which means cash coupons.
The National Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina released its 1992 -1993 issues, replacing the cash coupons. These notes feature guilloches on its front while the reverse features either the Stari Most or the coat of arms. However, another provisional family of notes was released when the Serb army of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People’s Army attacked the city of Saravejo from April 5, 1992, to February 29, 1996.
Because of the intensified Bosnian civil war, the country suffered from high inflation, hence, the introduction of the 1994 issues at a rate of 1 new dinar to 10,000 old Bosnian Dinara. These notes were only used in Bosniak-administered areas.
After the Dayton, Ohio peace agreement was served, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina was authorized to issue currency for the whole country, not only for the Bosniak-controlled areas but also the Croat-Bosniac Federation as well as the Republika Srpska.
In 1998, the dinar was replaced by the convertible mark which refers to the German mark. These notes feature famous Yugoslav writers and poets on their obverse designs. Though the German mark was replaced by the euro in 2002, the Bosnian convertible mark was still used. Later issues bear the same designs as the preceding issues but with enhanced paper quality and added security features such as Motion security threads, watermarks with electrotypes, optically variable inks, iridescent stripes, and solid windowed security threads with demetalized text.
