25 Roubles, City of Odessa, 1917

This copy

Accession

OM-00099

Series year

1917

Actually issued

1917

acting_mayor

not read uncertain

Handwritten facsimile; not resolved to a name.

city_treasurer

not read uncertain

Handwritten facsimile; not resolved.

Grade

F (IBNS)

Moderate 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

$6.5 indicative

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

Dimensions

143.8 × 96.3 mm (±0.6, from the scan)

Themes

Russian Civil WarMunicipal issueUkraine

The type

Type

25 Roubles, City of Odessa, 1917

Printer

Not established

Rarity

common

Inscriptions

Obverse — what stands behind it

Всѣ выпущенные въ обращеніе размѣнные билеты г. Одессы сполна обезпечены государственными кредитными билетами и пятипроцентными краткосрочными обязательствами Государственнаго Казначейства, хранящимися въ Одесской Конторѣ Государственнаго Банка

All small-change notes of the City of Odessa issued into circulation are fully secured by State Credit Notes and 5% short-term Treasury obligations held at the Odessa Office of the State Bank

Symbology

City arms and allegorical figures

Municipal heraldry doing the work an imperial eagle would once have done.

Angels and classical drapery

Grand civic ornament on a note worth a few roubles, printed by a city acting as its own treasury.

What was happening

Municipal money. When the state stopped supplying currency, cities printed their own against deposits held at the local branch of the State Bank — and said so in the small print, because acceptance depended entirely on people believing that sentence.

Odessa, Zhitomir, Elisavetgrad and dozens of other towns issued these between 1917 and 1920, through repeated changes of occupying power. Some carry Ukrainian text and the karbovanets denomination, some Russian and roubles, depending on who held the city when the plates were cut.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 25 Roubles, City of Odessa, 1917 in the collection.