The Verkhovna Rada has preliminarily backed renaming the ‘kopiyka’ to the ‘shah’

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada supported, at first reading, renaming the small-denomination coin from “kopiyka” to “shah,” as proposed by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

This was stated during a Verkhovna Rada session.

A total of 264 members of parliament voted in favor of the decision. The corresponding draft law was registered on October 1, 2025. The bill is now awaiting a second reading.

Recall that on December 15, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy recommended that parliament adopt, as a basis and as a whole, the draft law on renaming the “kopiyka” to “shah.”

In September 2024, the National Bank initiated the change of name for small coins from “kopiyka” to “shah.” A month later, NBU Governor Andriy Pyshnyy sent the relevant draft law to Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, asking him to initiate its submission for parliamentary consideration. Stefanchuk registered the bill on October 1, 2025. The National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) spoke out against the provision in the bill to change the name of the small-denomination coins from “kopiyka” to “shah.”

In April 2025, Pyshnyy said that the transition from “kopiykas” to “shahs” would not require additional expenditures from the state budget—apparently referring to the physical minting of the coins.