4% Treasury Bond Coupon, 1 Rouble, 1918

Купонъ билета Государственнаго Казначейства

Reverse of 4% Treasury Bond Coupon, 1 Rouble, 1918 — Reverse 600 dpi

This copy

Accession: OM-00020
Serial: CDXLVII 181709
Series year: 1918
Actually issued: 1918–1922
Signatures: This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
Grade: G (IBNS)
Heavily worn and darkened, coupon stock. Estimated from the archival scan. Folds, soiling and edge condition are visible at this resolution; paper crispness, pinholes, small repairs and pressing are not.
Estimated value: $2.5 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.
Dimensions: 77.1 × 37.6 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
Themes: Russian Civil War Emergency money Bond coupon Improvised currency

The type

Type: 4% Treasury Bond Coupon, 1 Rouble, 1918
Printer: Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers (Goznak)
Rarity: common

Inscriptions

Obverse — the gold promise

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)

Reverse — the counterfeiting penalty

Подделка кредитныхъ билетовъ преслѣдуется закономъ

Counterfeiting of credit notes is prosecuted by law

Symbology

Double-headed eagle, crownless: The same eagle with the crowns, orb and sceptre stripped off - redrawn for the Provisional Government in 1917 by Ivan Bilibin, and nicknamed the 'chicken' for its plucked look. It is a state trying to stay continuous with what came before while disowning the part everyone objected to. The Soviets kept it unchanged for years afterwards.
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.

What was happening

This is not money. It is the interest coupon from a State Treasury bond, valid for ten years from 1 August 1918 — and during the Civil War it was spent as cash.

When a state stops producing small denominations, people improvise with whatever bears a printed number and is hard to forge. Bond coupons, lottery tickets, share certificates and postage stamps all circulated as currency in Russia between 1918 and 1922. The coupons were ideal: pre-printed in fixed small amounts, serially numbered, and issued by the state itself.

Formally this one entitled the bearer to one rouble of annual interest at 4% on a Treasury bond. Practically, someone bought bread with it.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 4% Treasury Bond Coupon, 1 Rouble, 1918 in the collection.

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