Albums / Russia and the successor states
Russia and the successor states
The Russian Empire, the governments that broke from it, and the states that outlived it — Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkestan.
217 notes · 1898–1992
1 Rouble, Russian Empire, series 1898
НБ 337 · OM-00115 · VF
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00115
- Serial
- НБ 337
- Series year
- 1898
- Actually issued
- 1898
- manager
- I. P. Shipov (И. Шиповъ)certain
- cashier
- M. Osipov (М. Осиповъ)uncertain
- Grade
- VF (IBNS)
- Estimated value
- $6indicative
- Dimensions
- 150.7 × 89.2 mm (±0.5)
The type
- Type
- 1 Rouble, Russian Empire, series 1898
- Printer
- Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers
- Rarity
- very common
- Themes
- Gold standard Small denomination Imperial collapse
Inscriptions
Государственный банкъ размѣниваетъ кредитные билеты на золотую монету безъ ограниченія суммы (1 р. = 1/15 имперіала, содержитъ 17,424 доли чистаго золота)
The State Bank exchanges credit notes for gold coin without limit of sum (1 rouble = 1/15 imperial, containing 17.424 dolya of pure gold)
За подделку кредитныхъ билетовъ виновные подвергаются лишенію всѣхъ правъ состоянія и ссылкѣ въ каторжную работу
Counterfeiters are subject to deprivation of all rights of estate and exile to penal labour
Symbology
- Ornament without portrait
- The smallest imperial denomination carries no sovereign - only arms, guilloche and the promise. Portraits were reserved for the notes worth carrying.
- Double-headed eagle, crowned
- The Romanov arms in full: two crowned heads under a third imperial crown, holding orb and sceptre, with St George slaying the dragon on the breast shield. The two heads face east and west - a claim, inherited from Byzantium, to authority over both.
- Guilloche
- The dense interlaced line-work filling the field. Engine-turned on a geometric lathe, it was the era's principal anti-counterfeiting device: reproducible only with the same machine and impossible to draw freehand or photograph cleanly.
- Gold-standard wording in an ornamental cartouche
- The redemption promise is given its own decorative frame rather than being set as small print. On a note designed to advertise convertibility, the promise is the ornament.
What was happening
The one-rouble note of 1898 is the smallest and longest-lived denomination of the imperial series, printed almost unchanged from 1898 until 1917 and then by the Provisional Government and the Soviets after that. Its gold clause outlived the gold standard by eight years and the empire itself by five.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 1 Rouble, Russian Empire, series 1898 in the collection.