1 Talonas

The talonas was Lithuania's transitional currency, introduced in 1991 to manage the withdrawal from the Soviet ruble system before the litas could be reintroduced. It was never intended to be permanent — officials publicly described it as a coupon, partly to discourage hoarding and speculation. The 1 talonas sits at the bottom of a denomination ladder that compressed an enormous range of purchasing power into a very small number of notes as Soviet-era price distortions unwound rapidly.

The 60 × 40 mm format is genuinely tiny, a deliberate choice that reduced printing costs during a period when the new government had limited hard currency reserves for procurement.