250 Roubles, Provisional Government, 1917
Государственный кредитный билетъ — Двѣсти пятьдесятъ рублей
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00046
- Serial
- АВ 283
- 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
- VF (IBNS)
Bright, light circulation wear. 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
- $9 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.
- Dimensions
- 176.1 × 105 mm (±0.6, from the scan)
- Themes
- Provisional GovernmentCrownless eagleSwastika underprint1917
The type
- Type
- 250 Roubles, Provisional Government, 1917
- Printer
- Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers, Petrograd
- Rarity
- common
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)
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
The 250-rouble note of 1917, and the one collectors ask about, because a swastika sits in the underprint of its reverse behind the eagle. It is a kolovrat — a sun-wheel used across Slavic and Indian ornament — chosen years before the symbol meant anything else, and carried over into the Soviet 1918 issues. 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 250 Roubles, Provisional Government, 1917 in the collection.
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