1 Rouble Sochi

Sochi's 1919 municipal issue belongs to the chaotic interval when the city changed hands repeatedly between White forces, the short-lived Transcaucasian administrations, and Bolshevik advances. Local authorities throughout the former Russian Empire resorted to printing their own scrip during this period simply because no functioning central supply of currency reached them — Sochi being geographically isolated enough to make that problem acute.

The S585 designation places it firmly in the South Russia / Civil War miscellany that Pick catalogued cautiously, and surviving examples vary considerably in how crisply the municipal stamps were applied. Forgeries of these minor municipal issues were common even at the time of circulation, since redemption was uncertain and face value already near meaningless by late 1919.