Hi /r/Lithuania! I’m writing an article about the history of the banknotes of Lithuania. I am mostly finished but there are some things you can not find in history books and I hope some of you can help me.

Did the banknotes ever have nicknames? For example in Australia they call the red $20 a “lobster”

Did the public find the litas especially ugly, well designed, or did no one care? What was the general attitude about how they looked?

Also, were Lithuanian people proud of their currency? Was it seen as a symbol of independence?

Each banknote had a pattern in a long bar like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/20_litai_%281993%29.jpg) with birds, flowers, or patterns. Were these any kind of special regional or cultural patterns or just random?

Thank you for your help! I hope you do not mind that I posted in English.

12 comments

  1. >Did the public find the litas especially ugly, well designed, or did no one care? What was the general attitude about how they looked?

    By the time I was a teenager in late 90s/early 00s, I just remember the joke that we have the only currency in the world with a note, 10 litai, with two men that was “žydras” – while žydras literally means “light blue”, it had (still has probably) a secondary insulting meaning of gay.

  2. I never heard of any nicknames for Litas that I recall of, at a least in the region I lived at.

    In terms of how public viewed them, people didn’t view them ugly I feel like, but they didn’t care about it overly much either as far as I know, that being said, when I was a kid, mine and other kids parents did teach us about significance of each bill and what’s portrayed on it and what did it represent. After we got euro, a lot of people started referring to them nicer than euros and before in general etc. etc. (basically, you don’t care about it too much until you lose it).

    Lithuanian people were proud of the currency, it was specifically as you said, it symbolized our independence and freedom and displayed people that had an impact on the society and country overall.

    In terms of patterns, can’t really answer that, maybe someone else will, but I’d imagine it was to a degree for sake of fighting counterfeit money?

  3. 10 Litai banknote was sometimes called “červonsas” (it’s not a Lithuanian word though, a loanword from Russian). “Maironis” was a 20 Lt banknote, “Basanavičius” was a 50 Lt banknote, “Daukantas” was a 100 Lt banknote and “Kudirka” was a 500 Lt banknote because those famous persons were printed on those banknotes. A 200 Lt banknote could be “Vydūnas”, but these banknotes were not as popular as other.

  4. > Each banknote had a pattern in a long bar like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/20_litai_%281993%29.jpg) with birds, flowers, or patterns. Were these any kind of special regional or cultural patterns or just random?

    Some of them are traditional or common patterns in Lithuanian art found very interesting blog about the history and art on these [https://lietuvosbanknotai.weebly.com/](https://lietuvosbanknotai.weebly.com/).

    [10lt](https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litas#/media/Vaizdas:10_litai_(1997).jpg) laurel leaves, [20lt](https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litas#/media/Vaizdas:20_litai_(1993).jpg) bird – poet signs, [1lt](https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litas#/media/Vaizdas:1_litas_(1994).jpg) and [50lt](https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litas#/media/Vaizdas:50_litai_(1998).jpg) – national sash ornaments for one of the representative figures of the Lithuanian national movement, [100lt](https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litas#/media/Vaizdas:100_litai_(1991).jpg) – oak leaves – national symbol and on the reverse there are architectural ornaments. Notably, as time went on the simpler ones were removed for more complicated and thus more secure patterns.

  6. While the first series of Litas note had relatively low quality of printing and design, the last iteration outranked the 2002 euro notes.

    Was litas a symbol of independence – I would not say it. Maybe for initial decade that I do not remember. For nearly entire its contemporary existence it was pegged either to USD (1 $ = 4 Lt) or later EUR (1 € = 3,4528 Lt). During its last decade it was basically a euro with different denomination and separate design notes and coins.

  7. I’ve seen 1 litas banknotes framed and hung on a wall in some emigrants’ homes. Mostly as a joke, but I think also as a reminder of the home country.

    Also, I’ve heard 10 litas (Darius and Girenas, the two pilots) banknote called Dolce and Gabbana.

  8. Litas were overall liked by the public. It was a strong currency, first pegged to USD, later to Euro.

    For a more spicy angle you can check early history how Soviet KGB tried to sabotage printing Litas currency abroad.

  9. Pitakas for 5 Lt. it literally means a fiver.

    Daukantas for 100 Lt. Simonas Daukantas was on a bill

  10. one thing i miss about Litas – it was so much easier to differentiate between cents 🙁
    numbers were easily eligible, compared to euro cents

  11. Once my dad showed me how to check if “10 litu” banknote was real. Take the banknote by a corner and give a nice shake. If the pilots are still with their hats on they must be real 😆
    We called 10 litu – cyrikas, cirvonsas, dyske. Pronounce cyr cir like cheer and deeske

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