500 Roubles, RSFSR, 1923

This copy

Accession

OM-00124

Serial

ЕА 7156

Series year

1923

Actually issued

1923

commissar_of_finance

G. Y. Sokolnikov (Г. Сокольниковъ) probable

Engraved facsimile, constant across the 1923 issues. Sokolnikov replaced Krestinsky in late 1922 and ran the reform that ended the hyperinflation.

cashier

not read uncertain

Legible but not resolved to a name; compare against a signature chart.

Grade

F (IBNS)

Moderate wear, edge nicks. 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

$3 indicative

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

Dimensions

154.4 × 106.9 mm (±0.5, from the scan)

Themes

HyperinflationCurrency reformSoviet armsSovznak

The type

Type

500 Roubles, RSFSR, 1923

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

The sovznak of 1922 and 1923 is the last act of the hyperinflation. Two redenominations ran in quick succession — 1922 knocked four zeros off, 1923 another two — while the gold- backed chervonets was introduced alongside to do the real work. For about two years the Soviet Union ran two currencies at once: a hard one for accounting and trade, and this one, which people spent before it lost more value.

The 1924 reform retired the sovznak for good at 50,000 to one against the new rouble.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 500 Roubles, RSFSR, 1923 in the collection.