500 Roubles, RSFSR, series 1918

Государственный кредитный билетъ

Reverse of 500 Roubles, RSFSR, series 1918 — Reverse 600 dpi

This copy

Accession: OM-00061
Serial: АА 080
Series year: 1918
Actually issued: 1918
manager: G. L. Pyatakov (Г. Пятаковъ) certain
cashier: not read uncertain
Legible but not resolved to a name; compare against a signature chart.
Grade: VF (IBNS)
Light wear, sound paper. 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: $5 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.
Dimensions: 154.7 × 106.9 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
Themes: Russian Civil War Crownless eagle Pyatakov signature

The type

Type: 500 Roubles, RSFSR, series 1918
Printer: Goznak
Rarity: very common

Inscriptions

Obverse — the backing

Обеспечивается всем достоянием Республики

Secured by the entire property of the Republic — no gold, no exchange undertaking, only the assets of the state

Reverse — the counterfeiting penalty

Подделка преследуется по закону

Counterfeiting is prosecuted by law

Symbology

Soviet arms: Hammer and sickle crossed over a globe in a wreath of wheat, with a rising sun behind - industry and agriculture, the world as the field of action, and the sunrise of a new order. It replaced the eagle entirely rather than editing it.
«Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!»: 'Workers of the world, unite!' - printed on money, and on the larger notes repeated in German, French, Italian, English, Arabic and Chinese. A currency addressed to people who would never hold it.
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

A raschetny znak promises nothing but "the entire property of the Republic". There is no gold clause, no exchange undertaking, no signature of a bank manager — only a People's Commissar and a cashier. It is the paper of a state that had stopped pretending its money was a claim on anything.

These were printed to keep a war economy moving while the currency collapsed underneath it. Denominations climbed by orders of magnitude within months, and the 1922–24 reform eventually swept the whole issue away.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 500 Roubles, RSFSR, series 1918 in the collection.

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