(notes, coupons etc.) issued by municipal authorities. According to the Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine, over 300 municipalities within current Ukrainian borders issued a total of over 1,500 variously named currency substitutes (mostly rubles, karbovanets and hryvnia). Some of the paper currency denominated in hryvnia is shown in the gallery below. Post-Soviet Ukraine History As Ukraine was nearing independence in 1991, the government of then Ukrainian SSR began preparations to introduce a new currency named hryvnia. Leonid Kravchuk, then leader of the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR, ordered in April 1991 to prepare designs for the new national currency. It was initially planned to issue banknotes in denominations of ₴1, ₴3, ₴5, ₴10, ₴25, ₴50, ₴100 and ₴200, mimicking the denominations of the Soviet ruble. The final decision for the design of the currencies was adopted on 11 September 1991. On that day was decided to change planned ₴3 note to ₴2 and ₴25 notes to ₴20, as well as to set aside ₴200 as a reserve denomination. It was also then that the general outline of banknotes was chosen, that is, a prominent person from Ukraine's history on the obverse and a landmark building on the reverse, in most cases directly related with the person displayed. The choice of the people portrayed met with some reservations, as Kravchuk feared that inclusion of Ivan Mazepa on the banknotes might incense Moscow, and the candidacy of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi was also politically sensitive, but it was approved nevertheless, and has remained constant ever since. The first series was developed by Ukrainian artists Vasyl Lopata and Borys Maksymov, who were notably using relatively uncommon depictions of Taras Shevchenko and the Kievan Rus' rulers. Lopata was drawing the portraits and the buildings, while Maksymov designed the rest of the banknote. Lopata also proposed his versions of 500 and 1,000 hryvnias (with Hryhorii Skovoroda or Daniel of Galicia on the former denomination and Peter Mogila on the latter), but his idea was not supported. As the preparations for the first series were made, it became apparent that Ukraine was lacking appropriate domestic facilities to print banknotes. Therefore, banknotes of the first series of hryvnias were made by the Canadian Bank Note Company. 50, 100 and 200 hryvnias (which made part of the second series), after some problems connected with print quality and delays with the Canadian contractor, were eventually ordered from the Maltese branch of