25 Roubles, Transcaucasian Commissariat, 1918

This copy

Accession

OM-00068

Serial

АЗ 0873

Series year

1918

Actually issued

1918

peoples_commissar

not read uncertain

Handwritten facsimile, not resolved to a name.

head_of_the_finance_department

not read uncertain

Handwritten facsimile, not resolved.

Grade

VF (IBNS)

Light wear, good colour. 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

$8 indicative

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

Dimensions

110.8 × 68.3 mm (±0.5, from the scan)

Themes

Russian Civil WarCaucasusMultiple scripts

The type

Type

25 Roubles, Transcaucasian Commissariat, 1918

Printer

Not established

Rarity

common

Inscriptions

Obverse — parity with imperial notes

Обязательны къ обращенію наравнѣ съ государственными кредитными билетами

Compulsory in circulation on a par with State Credit Notes

Symbology

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.

Four scripts

The denomination in Russian, Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani in Arabic letters - a federation of three peoples printing one currency.

What was happening

The South Caucasus fragmented faster than anywhere else in the former empire. The Transcaucasian Commissariat governed jointly for a few months from Tiflis, then split in 1918 into three republics — Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan — each issuing its own currency, each conquered by the Red Army between 1920 and 1921, each then issuing Soviet notes in the same scripts.

These notes carry their denominations in Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani in Arabic script alongside Russian, and often French: an appeal to the European recognition that decided whether such a state survived.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 25 Roubles, Transcaucasian Commissariat, 1918 in the collection.