>>20379171It was standard for silver bars called grzywna. It was used in Poland, Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) and Ruthenia (Ukraine, Belarus). Later they started adding cuts to mark the weight. Not a lot of them survived because they were later melted to make coins. The cut version is the most common on the collector market because it was in use up to 15th century in Lithuania (historic medieval Lithuania contained modern day Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine).
Many modern currencies were named after these. Modern Ukraine currency is hrywna which is grzywna in Ukrainian. In Latin, grzywna is marca. This was the common name of many European currencies, most notably German mark. There is also a theory that the name of ruble currency came from Russian word for cutting and it refers to cuts on grzywna.
