400 YEARS OF RUSSIAN COINS AND CURRENCY

For hundreds of years much of Russian commerce was based on these tiny silver coins called wire money. The coins were struck by taking a piece of silver wire, cutting it to the proper weight, then smashing it between a pair of dies by a strong-armed Russian. As might be expected, the coins are quite crude and are usually struck partly off-center. The coin shows a horseman, on one side and legends on the other.

Russian Paper Money Imperial period

The first russian paper money were printed in 1769 during the reign of Ekaterina II. It was forced by the imperfectness of the monetary system, in which coins were the only payment method. The banknotes were printed on white paper and had watermarks. The notes were printed in 25, 50, 75 and 100 ruble variants. Yet, the 75 ruble note was soon put out of circulation because of fraud, as people began scraping out the word "twenty" and writing "seventy" instead. The second emission notes, dating 1774, had smaller sizes and lacked the 75 ruble one. From 1786 the banknotes were printed on color paper, but were still very simple, which cause massive fraud. In the beginning of the 19th century the paper money changed the outlook to a classicism style one. Architectural images and portraits began appearing on the banknotes in the 50s and 60s, along with imperial monograms. By the beginning of the 20th century many famous painters, like Reichel, Zauerveir and Lundin, took part in banknote design. The 1912 500 ruble banknote is often named as one of the most beautiful ones in history. All the banknotes of the Imperial period were printed in Russia, with one exception of a emission printed in the USA not long before the revolution of 1917.

First ruble The ruble has been the Russian unit of currency for about 500 years. From 1710, the ruble was divided into 100 kopeks.The amount of precious metal in a ruble varied over time. In a 1704 currency reform, Peter I standardized the ruble to 28 grams of silver. While ruble coins were silver, there were higher denominations minted of gold and platinum. By the end of the 18th century, the ruble was set to 4 zolotnik 21 dolya (almost exactly equal to 18 grams) of pure silver or 27 dolya (almost exactly equal to 1.2 grams) of pure gold, with a ratio of 15:1 for the values of the two metals. In 1828, platinum coins were introduced with 1 ruble equal to 77 dolya (3.451 grams). On 17 December 1885, a new standard was adopted which did not change the silver ruble but reduced the gold content to 1.161 grams, pegging the gold ruble to the French franc at a rate of 1 ruble = 4 francs. This rate was revised in 1897 to 1 ruble = 2 francs (0.774 grams gold). With the outbreak of the First World War, the gold standard peg was dropped and the ruble fell in value, suffering from hyperinflation in the early 1920s.

Second ruble, 1 January 1922 31 December 1922

In 1922, the first of several redenominations took place, at a rate of 1 "new" ruble for 10,000 "old" rubles. The chervonets () was also introduced in 1922. Third ruble, 1 January 1923 6 March 1924 A second redenomination took place in 1923, at a rate of 100 to 1. Again, only paper money was issued. During the lifetime of this currency, the first money of the Soviet Union was issued. Fourth (gold) ruble, 7 March 19241947 A third redenomination in 1924 introduced the "gold" ruble at a value of 50,000 rubles of the previous issue. This reform also saw the ruble linked to the chervonets, at a value of 10 rubles. Coins began to be issued again in 1924, whilst paper money was issued in rubles for values below 10 rubles and in chervonets for higher denominations. Fifth ruble, 19471961 Following World War II, the Soviet government implemented a confiscatory redenomination of the currency to reduce the amount of money in circulation. This only affected the paper money. Old rubles were revalued at one tenth of their face value. Sixth ruble, 1961 31 December 1997

The 1961 redenomination was a repeat of the 1947 reform, with the same terms applying. The Soviet ruble of 1961 was formally equal to 0.987412 gram of gold, but the exchange for gold was never available to the general public. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ruble remained the currency of the Russian Federation. A new set of banknotes was issued in the name of Bank of Russia in 1993. During the period of hyperinflation of the early 1990s, the ruble was significantly devalued.
Seventh ruble, 1 January 1998 The ruble was redenominated on 1 January 1998, with one new ruble equaling 1000 old rubles. The redenomination was a purely psychological step that did not solve the fundamental economic problems faced by the Russian economy at the time, and the currency was devalued in August 1998 following the 1998 Russian financial crisis. The ruble lost 70% of its value against the U.S. dollar in the six months following this 1998 Russian financial crisis. By calculating the product of all six redenominations, it is seen that a seventh ruble is equal to 51015 original rubles. In November 2004, the authorities of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk Oblast) erected a five-meter monument to the ruble.

On 23 November 2010, at a meeting of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao, it was announced that Russia and China have decided to use their own national currencies for bilateral trade, instead of the U.S. dollar. The move is aimed to further improve the relations between Beijing and Moscow and to protect their domestic economies in the conditions of the world financial crisis. The trading of the Chinese yuan against the ruble has started in the Chinese interbank market, while the yuan's trading against the ruble is expected to start on the Russian foreign exchange market in December 2010.

Russian Paper Money USSR period

The paper money of the USSR period underwent many emissions and changed its outlook very much. Most of it was printed on white paper and had watermarks, but the format and style of different series varies very much. For example, the 1918-1922 series are quite simplistic, while the 1923 one continues the traditions of the Imperial period. From 1925, the banknotes contained, in addition to the state symbols, pictures of people and their life (the worker and the farmer reading Karl Marx, a seeder, scenes of harvest, etc.). In 1937 for the first time Lenin himself appeared on the notes, and stayed there until 1992.

The seven coins in this set were issued shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The set includes the 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 Kopecks dating between 1989 and 1991 in Uncirculated condition. One side of the coin features a hammer and sickle enveloping the earth. The other side has the date and denomination. It is an interesting and inexpensive reminder of the "evil empire".

Russian Paper Money Contemporary Period

Russian money of the new epoque (after 1992) differ from the previous series by the disappearance of the Lenin portraits (which lasted 55 years). In 1992 another revolution happened in Russia, the single-party system was replaced by a democratic system. The money started baring pictures of cities. Until 1993 it was Moscow, and starting with 1995 more (Saint-Petersburg, Vladivostok, Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Yaroslavl and Archangelsk). During the devalvation of 1998 the value of the notes lost three zeros, but the note design remained the same.

1992 TRANSITIONAL BANKNOTES FROM RUSSIA

The sudden and unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 is reflected in this set of three Russian banknotes dated 1992. The 1000 Ruble features Lenin and the old Soviet Arms and legends. A blue guilloche and the date 1992 was added over the watermark area on the reverse to distinguish the note from the previous Soviet issue. The 5000 Rubles depicts St. Basils Cathedral on one side and the Kremlin on the other, with no symbols of either Russia or the U.S.S.R. The 10,000 Rubles features the new tricolor Russian Flag flying over the Kremlin. All three notes circulated only briefly, and were replaced with new issues in 1993. It is an interesting and shortlived set marking the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of the Russian Republic.

The ruble has been the currency that Russia has been using for at least five hundred years. However, over the years it has been changed and modified to better suit the countries needs.

When people from other countries travel to Russia they will first have to get their money converted or it will be no use there. The only countries that use the ruble currency are Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.