Types / 1917
40 Roubles, Provisional Government kerenka
Казначейскій знакъ — Сорокъ рублей
very common
What was happening
A kerenka, named for Kerensky. The Provisional Government needed money faster than it could engrave it, so it printed these: no serial numbers, no signatures, minimal design, issued in uncut sheets that people tore apart as they spent them.
They were despised on sight and still circulated for years, through the Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks and the Civil War, because nothing better was available. The 20 and 40 rouble denominations are the emblem of 1917 finance - money printed at the speed of a collapsing state.
