Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark

History

The convertible mark was established by the 1995 Dayton Agreement. It replaced the Bosnia and Herzegovina dinar, Croatian kuna and Republika Srpska dinar as the single currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1998. Mark refers to the German mark, the currency to which it was pegged at par.

Etymology

The names derive from the German language. Three official languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian) have adopted German nouns die Mark and der Pfennig as loanwords marka and pfenig. The Official Gazette of BiH (Bosnian: Službeni glasnik BiH), Official newspaper of FBiH (Bosnian: Službene novine FBiH) and other official documents recognized pfenig or пфениг (depending on the script; Bosnian and Serbian use both Latin and Cyrillic on an equal footing, while Croatian uses only Latin) as the name of the subdivision.

Banknotes of 50 fenings/pfenigs were in circulation from 1998 to 2000. They were denoted as "50 KONVERTIBILNIH PFENIGA" / "50 КОНВЕРТИБИЛНИХ ПФЕНИГА"; however, the word convertible should never be next to the pfenig because only the mark can be convertible. (See Mistakes for all of the mistakes on banknotes and coins.) Coins of 10, 20 and 50 pfenigs have been in circulation since 1998 (the 5-pfenigs coin was released in 2006). All of them are inscribed "~ feninga" / "~ фенинга" on the obverse. Misspelling fening/фенинг has never been corrected, and it took that much hold that is now officially adopted and not recognized as an incorrect name.

Plurals and cases

Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian have a complicated case system. In addition, it is important to note that they use three plural forms.

For the pfenig, the plural is pfeniga/feninga with a short unaccentuated a, whereas the genitive plural is pfeniga/feninga (same) but with a long unaccentuated i and a. A syllable after an accentuated syllable whose vowel is pronounced as a long and with a continuous tone (neither rising or falling) is said to have a genitive length (although, word need not to be necessarily in the genitive case in order to have genitive length on its syllable; it can be in locative, too).

These matters should be noted when one uses the local names in English. For example, English plural "ten pfenigas" / "ten feningas" is incorrect as the final a in BSC plural pfeniga/feninga already indicates the plural. So, "ten pfenigs" / "ten fenings" should be used instead. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) uses "fenings" as the English plural. Likewise, "twenty-one markas" / "two markes" / "twelve marakas" is incorrect; "twenty-one marks" / "two marks" / "twelve marks" should be used instead.

Coins

In December 1998, coins were introduced in denominations of 10, 20 and 50 fenings/pfenigs. Coins of 1, 2 and 5 marks were introduced later. The coins were designed by Bosnian designer Kenan Zekic and minted at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant (Wales, UK).

Exchange rates

Initially the mark was pegged to the German mark at par. Since the replacement of the German mark by the euro in 2002, the Bosnian convertible mark uses the same fixed exchange rate to euro that the German mark has (that is, 1 EUR = 1.95583 BAM).

Mistakes

Banknotes and coins of Bosnia and Herzegovina have many mistakes and inconsistencies (maybe more than any other currency).

Officially, only one banknote hasn't been released in circulation because of a mistake, even though other banknotes with mistakes had been issued.

Examples

These are the most important mistakes that have been noticed till now:

1. 50 fenings/pfenigs banknote in both designs had the adjective "convertible" next to the noun "pfenig" although only mark can be convertible ("50 KONVERTIBILNIH PFENIGA" / "50 КОНВЕРТИБИЛНИХ ПФЕНИГА").
2. 1 KM banknote for Republika Srpska was printed as "ИВО АНДРИЂ / IVO ANDRIĐ" instead of "ИВО АНДРИЋ / IVO ANDRIĆ". This banknote was immediately removed from circulation.
3. 5 KM banknote in both designs had the Cyrillic word "five" incorrectly printed in Latin script on its reverse side ("PET КОНВЕРТИБИЛНИХ МАРАКА").
4. 10 KM banknote for Republika Srpska (first series, 1998) had Aleksa Šantić's name printed in Latin script although it should have been printed in Cyrillic script as it is on all other examples in 1998 series.
5. 100 KM banknote in both designs was incorrectly printed with the Cyrillic abbreviation (acronym) of Central bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina with "Џ / Dž" instead of "Ц / C" (i.e. "ЏББХ / DžBBH" instead of "ЦББХ / CBHH") in safety bar.
6. The name of the subdivision of convertible mark found on coins has been incorrectly written, the word "pfenig" being written as "fening". This mistake took so much hold (especially because there were no (and are no) 50 pfenigs/fenings banknotes in circulation) that "fening" is now officially adopted and not recognized as incorrect for the KM's hundredth part.