Latvian lats Lūsis and Jānis Strupulis. All banknotes are 130 × 65 mm in size. They were printed by Giesecke & Devrient GmbH in Germany and were designed by Imants Žodžiks and Valdis Ošiņš. The lats was the fourth-highest-valued currency unit after the Kuwaiti dinar, Bahraini dinar, and the Omani rial at the end of its circulation. The 500 latu note was the world's third most valuable banknote after the $10,000 Singapore note and the 1,000 Swiss franc note. Latvian lats The lats (plural: "lati" (2–9) "latu" (10 and more)), ISO 4217 currency code: LVL or 428) was the currency of Latvia
Hard currency its short history, however the European sovereign debt crisis has partially eroded that confidence. The Swiss franc (CHF) has long been considered a hard currency, and in fact was the last paper currency in the world to terminate its convertibility to gold. In the summer of 2011, the European sovereign debt crisis led to rapid flows out of the euro and into the franc by those seeking hard currency, causing the latter to appreciate rapidly. On September 6, 2011, the Swiss National Bank announced that it would buy an "unlimited" number of euros to fix an exchange rate at 1.00