50 Kopecks, Russian Empire, 1915

Казначейскій знакъ — 50 копѣекъ

Reverse of 50 Kopecks, Russian Empire, 1915 — Reverse 600 dpi

This copy

Accession: OM-00211
Series year: 1915
Actually issued: 1915
Signatures: This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
Grade: XF (IBNS)
Clean and crisp, light handling only. 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: $7 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.
Dimensions: 101.1 × 60.8 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
Themes: First World War Small change Silver substitute

The type

Type: 50 Kopecks, Russian Empire, 1915
Printer: Not established
Rarity: common

Inscriptions

Obverse — the gold promise

Государственный банкъ размѣниваетъ кредитные билеты на золотую монету безъ ограниченія суммы (1 р. = 1/15 имперіала, содержитъ 17,424 доли чистаго золота)

The State Bank exchanges credit notes for gold coin without limit of sum (1 rouble = 1/15 imperial, containing 17.424 dolya of pure gold)

Reverse — the counterfeiting penalty

За подделку кредитныхъ билетовъ виновные подвергаются лишенію всѣхъ правъ состоянія и ссылкѣ въ каторжную работу

Counterfeiters are subject to deprivation of all rights of estate and exile to penal labour

Symbology

Double-headed eagle, crowned: The Romanov arms in full: two crowned heads under a third imperial crown, holding orb and sceptre, with St George slaying the dragon on the breast shield. The two heads face east and west - a claim, inherited from Byzantium, to authority over both.
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.
Gold-standard wording in an ornamental cartouche: The redemption promise is given its own decorative frame rather than being set as small print. On a note designed to advertise convertibility, the promise is the ornament.

What was happening

A treasury small-change note, issued from 1915 because silver coin had disappeared from circulation almost as soon as the war began. Its text is the whole story: these circulate on a par with silver subsidiary coin — an admission that they are a substitute for metal nobody could get.

Printed on thin card, unsigned, unnumbered, in enormous quantities. They are the first step of the imperial monetary collapse: not inflation yet, just the quiet disappearance of anything with intrinsic value.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Kopecks, Russian Empire, 1915 in the collection.

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