50 Kopecks, RSFSR, 1923

Государственный денежный знак РСФСР — 50 копѣекъ

Reverse of 50 Kopecks, RSFSR, 1923 — Reverse 600 dpi

This copy

Accession: OM-00108
Series year: 1923
Actually issued: 1923–1924
Signatures: This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
Grade: AU (IBNS)
Near as-issued; crisp with a few small foxing spots. Estimated from the archival scan. Originally filed under the Ekaterinodar 50 kopecks in error; it is a 1923 RSFSR fractional note.
Estimated value: $10 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.
Dimensions: 49.1 × 55.9 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
Themes: Small change Soviet arms Currency reform

The type

Type: 50 Kopecks, RSFSR, 1923
Printer: Goznak
Rarity: 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 banknote pretending to be a coin. The 1923 reform had cut six zeros off the currency in two steps, but the mint could not supply small change, so the state printed fractional notes on card and gave them a circular, coin-like design — wreath, denomination, state arms — so they would read as money at a glance.

The reverse carries the RSFSR arms and Proletarians of all countries, unite! around the counterfeiting warning. Within a year the chervonets reform had restored a stable currency and real coin returned; these were among the last of the improvised small change that had run continuously since 1915.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Kopecks, RSFSR, 1923 in the collection.

← → to move between notes