4% Treasury Bond Coupon, 1 Rouble, 1918

This is not money. It is the interest coupon from a State Treasury bond, valid for ten years from 1 August 1918 — and during the Civil War it was spent as cash.

When a state stops producing small denominations, people improvise with whatever bears a printed number and is hard to forge. Bond coupons, lottery tickets, share certificates and postage stamps all circulated as currency in Russia between 1918 and 1922. The coupons were ideal: pre-printed in fixed small amounts, serially numbered, and issued by the state itself.

Formally this one entitled the bearer to one rouble of annual interest at 4% on a Treasury bond. Practically, someone bought bread with it.