1 Rouble Control number

This 1-rouble control coupon was a direct product of wartime fiscal collapse. By 1917, the Provisional Government had so thoroughly exhausted the empire's printing capacity — and its public credibility — that these small-denomination notes were issued essentially as change substitutes, filling the void left by hoarded silver and copper coins that had vanished from circulation entirely. The series continued into early Soviet administration, which is why the date range straddles the revolution.

The Goznak facility in Petrograd kept the presses running through extraordinary political disruption. Pick #15 is frequently found with misaligned control numbers, a predictable consequence of the conditions under which it was produced.