1 Kopeck - Foreign Exchange Certificate

Vneshtorgbank's Foreign Exchange Certificates — known colloquially as "cheki" — were not ordinary currency. Introduced to capture hard currency from Soviet citizens receiving remittances from abroad or returning from foreign postings, they gave holders access to Beriozka shops where imported goods and otherwise unobtainable domestic items could be purchased. The 1965–1966 series introduced a color-coding system distinguishing certificates by source country of the originating hard currency, a bureaucratic refinement that tells you something about how seriously the state took the arbitrage problem.

Possession by an ordinary Soviet citizen without documented entitlement was legally precarious. The notes circulated anyway, traded at significant premiums on the black market.