The convertible mark (, Cyrillic: конвертибилна марка; sign: KM; code: BAM) is the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is divided into 100 Pfenig or Fening (Пфениг/Фенинг) and locally abbreviated KM. While the currency and its subunits are uniform for both constituent polities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), the designs of the KM 10, KM 20, KM 50, and KM 100 banknotes are differentiated for each polity.

History

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

Etymology

The names derive from German. The three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian, have adopted the German nouns Mark and 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 recognised pfenig or пфениг (depending on the script; Serbian uses both Latin and Cyrillic equally, while Bosnian and Croatian uses only Latin) as the name of the subdivision. Most, however, consider the "pf" cluster in "pfenig" to be nigh unpronounceable, so the pronunciation was practically immediately reduced to "fenig", which eventually gave rise to the "fening" misspelling. Banknotes of 50 fenings circulated from 1998 to 2003. They were denoted "50 KONVERTIBILNIH PFENIGA" / "50 КОНВЕРТИБИЛНИХ ПФЕНИГА"; technically, the word convertible should not qualify the word pfenig because only the mark is convertible. (See Errors for all of the errors on banknotes and coins.) Coins of 10, 20, and 50 pfenigs have circulated since 1998 (the 5-pfenigs coin was released in 2006). All of them are inscribed "~ feninga" / "~ фенинга" on the obverse. The misspelling fening/фенинг has never been corrected, and it took such a hold that it was officially adopted and not recognised as incorrect. Due to the overall confusion surrounding the foreign name of the currency, most people call the convertible mark simply "marka" ("mark") while pfennigs are referred to as "kovanice" ("nickels").

Plurals and cases

Serbo-Croatian is subject to a case system. For the purposes of pluralizing currency terms, three situations are relevant: For the pfenig, the plural is pfeniga/feninga with a short unaccented a, whereas the genitive plural is the same pfeniga/feninga but with a long unaccented i and a. A syllable after an accented syllable whose vowel is pronounced long and with a continuous tone, i. e. neither rising or falling, is said to have a genitive length (although the word does not necessarily have to be in the genitive case in order to have genitive length on its syllable; it can be in the locative also). These matters should be noted when the local names are used in English. For example, the English plural "ten pfenigas" / "ten feningas" is incorrect because the final a in the BSC plural pfeniga/feninga already indicates the plural. Therefore "ten pfenigs" / "ten fenings" should be used. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) uses "fenings" as the English plural. Likewise, "twenty-one markas", "two markes", and "twelve marakas" are incorrect; "twenty-one marks", "two marks", and "twelve marks", respectively, are correct.

Coins

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

Banknotes

In 1998, notes were introduced in denominations of 50 fenings, KM 1, KM 5, KM 10, KM 20, KM 50, and KM 100. KM 200 notes were added in 2002, while the 50-fening and KM 1 and KM 5 notes were later withdrawn from circulation. All current notes are valid throughout the nation. The Central Bank of Bosnia Herzegovina issues the banknotes, with distinct designs for the constituent polities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska,1 except for the largest denomination, i. e. the KM 200 note. The banknotes are legal tender throughout the country. On the notes for the Republika Srpska, inscriptions are printed first in Cyrillic and then Latin script, and vice versa. Banknotes, with the exception of the KM 200 note, are printed by the French company Oberthur.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina issues

Republika Srpska issues

Nationwide issues

The portraits of Ivan Franjo Jukić and Meša Selimović, which are both writers, were featured by consensus between both entities on all KM 1 and KM 5 notes used between 1998 and 2010. On 15 May 2002, a KM 200 banknote, designed by Robert Kalina, was introduced during a promotion that was held in the Central Bank of BH. The reverse design which depicts a bridge is meant to resemble the euro banknotes, which were also designed by Robert Kalina. After an international tender, the Austrian company Oesterreichische Banknoten und Sicherheitsdruck GmbH (OeBS) in Vienna was chosen to print the notes. Initially, six million were ordered.

Exchange rates

Initially the mark was pegged to the Deutsche 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 had (that is, 1 = 1.95583 ).

Errors

Banknotes and coins of Bosnia and Herzegovina have many mistakes and inconsistencies. Officially, only one banknote has not been released in circulation because of a mistake, even though other banknotes with mistakes had been issued.

Banknote examples

These are the most important mistakes that have been noticed to date:

Coin examples