1 ruble — RSFSR (1919)

Photo: ngdawa (CC BY-NC-SA) · Numista
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Watermark

Rhombuses made up of light and dark triangles, each holding a smaller rhombus.

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Issue history

The one-rouble settlement note was the first Soviet banknote to carry the new RSFSR emblem. It was introduced by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars dated 4 February 1919, and 760.7 million were printed. The note bears no date, no signatures and no serial numbers. It was printed in Petrograd at the Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers, by the Orlov method of multicolour printing. From mid-1921 the notes were gradually pulled out of circulation, and issuing ended on 1 July 1922. They were then accepted in exchange for 1922-series roubles at 10,000 to 1 — first until 1 October, later until 1 November 1922.

Sheets and specimens

The notes were printed in whole sheets of 25 (5 × 5) and cut apart by hand afterwards. An uncut sheet is worth more than single notes (Denisov catalogue: К3-1л). Specimens were perforated «ОБРАЗЕЦ» twice on a strip of five notes; their obverse and reverse were printed on separate sheets, on watermarked paper.

Appearance

The note is small, and its size varies noticeably from piece to piece, because the sheets were cut by hand. The obverse comes in brown or green; the reverse is multicoloured on a guilloché background. The paper carries a watermark.

Other items of the period

• 1 ruble (1919) Pick# 81
• 2 rubles (1919) Pick# 82
• 3 rubles (1919) Pick# 83
• 15 rubles (1919) Pick# 98
• 30 rubles (1919) Pick# 99
• 60 rubles (1919) Pick# 100
• 100 rubles (1919) — “Babylonian note” Pick# 101
• 250 rubles (1919) — “Babylonian note” Pick# 102
• 500 rubles (1919) — “Babylonian note” Pick# 103
• 1000 rubles (1919) — “Babylonian note” Pick# 104
• 5000 rubles (1919) — “Babylonian note” Pick# 105
• 10000 rubles (1919) — “Babylonian note” Pick# 106