Croatia-in-English.com

How the Croatian alphabet
is shown on this site.


  Croatian money is called kuna.

Today's kuna recently came into being after the break with Yugoslavia (1991-92). But long ago there was also a coin called the kuna in Croatia.

The kuna is a type of marten (related to the weasel and mink). In ancient times the kuna pelt was an export item from many regions of what is today Croatia. Around 1000 AD, the towns of Cres and Beli (on the island of Cres) had to pay an annual tribute in kuna pelts to the Venetian authorities. This was the first known instance of the kuna pelt being used directly as payment. Then, later, coins called kuna were minted. Here's a kuna coin dated to around 1250 AD:



Notice the 4-legged animal right in the middle? That's a kuna.
The back looks like this:



The scale is not obvious in this photo but it's about a half inch in diameter.