The names derive from the German language. The three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina have adopted German nounsdie Mark and der Pfennig as loanwords marka and pfenig. The Official Gazette of BiH, Official newspaper of FBiH and other official documents recognised pfenig or пфениг as the name of the subdivision. Banknotes of 50 fenings/pfenigs were in circulation from 1998 to 2000. They were denoted as "50 KONVERTIBILNIH PFENIGA" / "50 КОНВЕРТИБИЛНИХ ПФЕНИГА"; however, the wordconvertible should never be next to the pfenig because only the mark can be convertible. Coins of 10, 20 and 50 pfenigs have been in circulation since 1998. All of them are inscribed "~ feninga" / "~ фенинга" on the obverse. Misspelling fening/фенинг has never been corrected, and it took that much hold that is now officially adopted and not recognised as an incorrect name.
In combination with numbers 1, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 101, 1001, … nouns use the nominative casesingular :
In combination with numbers that for rightmost digit have 2, 3 or 4 nouns use the genitive case singular :
In combination with numbers 0, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 100, 1000, 10000 etc. nouns use the genitive case plural:
For the pfenig, the plural is pfeniga/feninga with a short unaccented a, whereas the genitive plural is pfeniga/feninga but with a long unaccented i and a. A syllable after an accented syllable whose vowel is pronounced as a long and with a continuous tone is said to have a genitive length. These matters should be noted when one uses the local names in English. For example, English plural "ten pfenigas" / "ten feningas" is incorrect as the final a in BSC plural pfeniga/feninga already indicates the plural. So, "ten pfenigs" / "ten fenings" should be used instead. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina uses "fenings" as the English plural. Likewise, "twenty-one markas" / "two markes" / "twelve marakas" is incorrect; "twenty-one marks" / "two marks" / "twelve marks" should be used instead.
Coins
In December 1998, coins were introduced in denominations of 10, 20 and 50 fenings/pfenigs. Coins of 1, 2 and 5 marks were introduced later. The coins were designed by Bosnian designer Kenan Zekic and minted at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant.
Banknotes
In 1998, notes were introduced in denominations of 50 fenings/pfenigs, 1 mark, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 marks. 200-mark notes were added in 2002, whilst the 50-fening/pfenig, 1- and 5-mark notes were later withdrawn from circulation. All current notes are valid throughout the country. The banknotes are issued by the Central Bank of Bosnia Herzegovina, with distinct designs for the entities of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska,1except for the largest denomination – 200-mark note. On the notes of the Republika Srpska, inscriptions are printed in Cyrillic, then Latin script, and vice versa. Banknotes, with the exception of the 200-mark 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 1 and 5 notes used between 1998 and 2010. On 15 May 2002, a 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 in Vienna was chosen to print the notes. Initially, six million were ordered.
Exchange rates
Initially the mark was pegged to the German 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,
Mistakes
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.
Examples
These are the most important mistakes that have been noticed till now:
50 fenings/pfenigs banknote in both designs had the adjective "convertible" next to the noun "pfenig" although only mark can be convertible.
1 KM banknote for Republika Srpska was printed as "ИВО АНДРИЂ / IVO ANDRIĐ" instead of "ИВО АНДРИЋ / IVO ANDRIĆ". This banknote was immediately removed from circulation.
5 KM banknote in both designs had the Cyrillic word "five" incorrectly printed in Latin script on its reverse side.
10 KM banknote for Republika Srpska had Aleksa Šantić's name printed in Latin script although it should have been printed in Cyrillic script as it is on all other examples in 1998 series.
The name of the subdivision of convertible mark found on coins has been incorrectly written, the word "pfenig" being written as "fening". This mistake took so much hold that "fening" is now officially adopted and not recognized as incorrect for the KM's hundredth part.
In 2017, Edin Bujak from Department of archaeology on Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo, noticed a mistake on 10 KM banknote for the Federation of B&H. Picture of stećak on reverse side is actually a picture of stećak from Križevići, Olovo, and not from Radimlja necropolis as stated on banknote. Central bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed this mistake and it will be corrected in future printing of banknotes.
