1 000 Roubles, Provisional Government, 1917

This copy

Accession

OM-00044

Serial

ВТ 199572

Series year

1917

Actually issued

1917–1922

manager

not read uncertain

Handwritten facsimile, legible on the note but not resolved to a name. Compare against a published signature list.

cashier

not read uncertain

Handwritten facsimile, legible on the note but not resolved to a name. Compare against a published signature list.

Grade

F (IBNS)

Moderate wear, edge nicks. 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

$6.5 indicative

Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.

Dimensions

215 × 132.4 mm (±0.6, from the scan)

Themes

Provisional GovernmentCrownless eagleTauride Palace1917

The type

Type

1 000 Roubles, Provisional Government, 1917

Printer

Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers, Petrograd

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

Called the dumka — Duma money — for the Tauride Palace on its back, the seat of the Duma and of the Petrograd Soviet. Money of the Provisional Government — the eight months between the fall of the monarchy in February 1917 and the Bolshevik seizure of power in October.

The design is the empire's, with the regalia removed: the double-headed eagle keeps both heads but loses its crowns, orb and sceptre. It is a state trying to be continuous with what came before while disowning the part everyone objected to. The gold clause is still printed on the face, still promising exchange without limit of sum, still void since 1914.

These are the last notes of a Russia that was neither imperial nor Soviet, and they were obsolete within months of issue — though, like everything else from the period, they went on circulating for years because there was nothing better.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 1 000 Roubles, Provisional Government, 1917 in the collection.