They called him Hammurabi, and in some ways, he was as much of a visionary as his Babylonian namesake. Bogdan Oblak almost single-handedly launched Slovenia’s first currency two years before the country became independent.

As the computer age began to dawn in Slovenia, Oblak emerged as an eminently qualified but slightly eccentric computer whiz. However, being an economist by profession, he was eventually drawn to the problem of Yugoslavia’s troubled currency. In the late 1980s, Slovenia’s relations with the authorities in Belgrade were rapidly deteriorating, in part because of major fiscal problems. The Yugoslav dinar, undergoing hyperinflation, was losing value by the day, and many people resorted to using West German marks as their currency of choice.

In 1989, Oblak responded to the failure of the dinar by launching his own currency. He named it “lipa,” meaning linden tree – in honor of that ancient Slovenian symbol. Oblak’s lipa was a real currency, Slovenia’s first, and it was even pegged to the gold standard.

The lipa had no official backing but dozens of different companies accepted the new currency. Famously, the iconoclastic magazine Mladina even printed the price in lipas on its cover, giving Oblak’s currency widespread publicity.

Oblak even melted near-worthless dinar coins to mint his lipas. He launched both gold and silver lipa coins, as well as several bills.

In the end, Oblak’s Lipa Holding ended up circulating fewer bills and coins than it had originally hoped. The lipa never became a viable alternative to the German mark. Yet, it worked as a currency. Not only was it accepted by many stores, its status as a serious currency was also confirmed when counterfeit lipas began to appear on the market. And unlike the dreaded dinar, the lipa did not suffer from inflation.

Two years after Oblak introduced his currency, Slovenia became and independent country. Oblak tried to persuade the government to adopt the lipa as the legal tender. The idea was briefly considered, but rejected, and the tolar was introduced instead. Oblak, having retreated from the public eye, died several years later.

Still, the lipa was not only a visionary idea in an era before the bitcoins and other alternative currencies – it also showed that Slovenia could operate its own currency and did not need Yugoslavia to survive. Just when it mattered most, Bogdan Oblak’s idea was another proof that Slovenia’s independence was indeed possible.