10 000 Roubles Don Cossack Military Government

The Vsevelikoye Voysko Donskoye — the Great Don Host — issued this note during one of the more precarious stretches of the Russian Civil War, when the Don Cossack state under Ataman Krasnov and later Bogaevsky was simultaneously fighting the Red Army and navigating an uneasy relationship with the White Army command under Denikin. The Don government maintained its own treasury and printing operation partly as an assertion of autonomy from the Volunteer Army, not merely out of logistical necessity.

At 10,000 roubles, this is among the highest denominations in the Don series — a direct consequence of the inflation that had already gutted purchasing power across the former empire by 1919. The handstamp security feature is characteristic of the Don issues, applied to authenticate notes against the flood of forgeries circulating in the region.