50 kopecks — RSFSR (1918)

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

Fifty-kopeck credit note of 1918, American print. At the centre of the front the arms of the Provisional Government (a double-headed eagle without the symbols of tsarist power), the denomination repeated several times and below the inscription "ИМЕЮТЪ ХОЖДЕНIЕ НАРАВНЕ СЪ РАЗМЕННОЙ СЕРЕБРЯНОЙ МОНЕТОЙ". The back carries "50 КОПЕЕК" in large type on an ornamental ground, repeated several times, and "ПОДДЕЛКА БИЛЕТА ПРЕСЛЕДУЕТСЯ ЗАКОНОМЪ". Size 93 × 56 mm. The only denomination part of which reached Omsk; in circulation in Siberia from 1919. Specimens with the overprint "SPECIMEN" are known, in large and small lettering.