100 rubles — RSFSR (1919) — “Babylonian note”

The hundred-rouble settlement note of the second 1919 series is known as the «Babylonian note» for its ornate border. It is dated 1919 but was released only in March 1920. The reverse carries the slogan «Workers of the world, unite» in several languages, including Arabic and Chinese. Blocks of 200 were planned for each of the three series, but in the end 121 blocks were issued — 121 million notes. Issuing was stopped by a decree of 28 June 1922, and the notes could be exchanged for 1922-series roubles at 10,000 to 1 until 1 November 1922.

The note carries two signatures: that of the People's Commissar of Finance N. Krestinsky (the same on all) and one of ten cashiers. The cashier is set by the last digit of the block number. The note was printed by three Goznak factories, and the series shows which one: the First Moscow factory printed series АА (blocks 001–048), Penza АБ (001–066) and Perm (the Urals) АЕ (001–007). Each block is 1,000,000 notes; the table has a separate row for each series and last block digit.

The notes were printed in sheets of 6 (2 × 3). Specimens are perforated «ОБРАЗЕЦ», separately on the obverse and on the reverse.

The reverse is printed in black, purple-brown and green on a brown background. The watermark is the numeral 100 repeated across the whole field: usually horizontal, but sometimes vertical — the direction depends on how the sheet was loaded, and it is one and the same print run.