Slovak koruna banknotes
The currency unit in the Slovak republic was the Slovak crown until the 31 December 2008 (the abbreviation was Sk and the ISO-code SKK). The following seven denominations were in the circulation: 5000 Sk, 1000 Sk, 500 Sk, 200 Sk, 100 Sk, 50 Sk, and 20 Sk.
The first new Slovak banknote of 50 Sk has been put into circulation on 29 August 1993, followed by four further denominations. The emission of the new series has been finished in 1995 by issuing of banknotes 5000 Sk a 200 Sk.
In 1995 the National Bank of Slovakia has put into circulation reprints of banknotes 20 Sk, 50 Sk, and 1000 Sk (all series 1995), followed in 1996 by reprints of banknotes 100 Sk and 500 Sk (series 1996). There are some changes in the design of the said banknotes and used inks with the aim to assure better distinguishing of the banknotes in the everyday circulation.
Banknotes reprinted in 1999 and 2000 have a few supplementary security features, designed to ensure increased protection against forgery. On 200 Sk, 1000 Sk and 5000 Sk banknote series 1999 and 500 Sk series 2000 apart from localised watermarks, the reprints notes contain an additional highlight watermark and the reverse of the new banknote has an iridescent coating, which is overlapped by lines forming a stylised picture. On the coupon of the banknotes are stylised features printed in optically variable ink. On Sk 5000 notes above metallic foil there is applied a crescent-shaped KINEGRAM®. On the front side of the banknote the high reflection golden foil is hot stamped.
In December 1999 the National Bank of Slovakia has issued the second emission of all seven denominations of banknotes series 1993 and 1995, which differ from the originally issued banknotes by the applied silver, resp. gold metallic foil with the text commemorating the year 2000, localised in the bottom part of the coupon. Banknotes printed on the ocassion of the Bimilenium were issued in fallowing limited quantities:
| Nominal value | 20 Sk | 50 Sk | 100 Sk | 200 Sk | 500 Sk | 1000 Sk | 5000 Sk |
| Number of pcs. | 330,000 | 168,750 | 133,000 | 108,000 | 67,200 | 40,600 | 10,800 |
The author of artistic design of all Slovak banknotes is Jozef Bubák. The Slovak banknotes have been printed in seven different printing works: BA Banknote (Canada), Canadian Bank Note Company (Canada), Thomas De La Rue (Great Britain), Giesecke & Devrient (Germany) Oesterreichische Banknoten und Sicherheitsdruck GmbH, (Austria), François-Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire (France) and Polska Wytwórnia Papierow Wartosciowych (Poland).
Main motifs on the front side of the banknotes represents important personalities living in the territory of the present Slovakia in various historical eras. On the back side of the banknotes these motifs are completed by depicting places where these personalities lived and were acitive.
