1000 rubles — RSFSR (1919) — Specimen

Photo: American Bank Note Company, via Wikimedia Commons

Credit notes of the American Bank Note Company

The notes of 1918–1919 ordered by the Provisional Government in September 1917 from the American Bank Note Company in New York: the order for the 25 and 100 roubles was huge. The work dragged on until the spring of 1919, and the notes reached Vladivostok already in the hands of the local authorities. They circulated in Siberia and the Far East in 1919–1920, signed and unsigned, with the shield overprint of Transbaikal and the round stamp of the Far Eastern Republic; one variant (series ГИ and БИ) came into the hands of Denikin in the south of Russia but was not put into circulation. Part of the 50-kopeck issue reached Omsk. The 50, 250, 500 and 1000 roubles dated 1919 were never issued and are known only as specimens and trials.

Appearance

1000-rouble credit note dated 1919 from the American order, never put into circulation. The front is designed as on the notes of 1918: an ancient Roman goddess against a panorama of a city, the date 1919 repeated twice at the top and the figure 1000 in the corners; the back carries the arms of the Provisional Government, the Tauride Palace and the denomination in large type. Size 168 × 95 mm. Only a few specimens and trials survive. Specimens are known with the "SPECIMEN" overprint and without it, without series and number.

Other items of the period

• 50 kopecks (1918)
• 25 rubles (1918)
• 50 rubles (1919) — Specimen
• 100 rubles (1918) Pick# 40
• 250 rubles (1919) — Specimen
• 500 rubles (1919) — Specimen
• 1000 rubles (1919) — Specimen