10 Centaurų

This is one of the more administratively peculiar emissions in modern European monetary history. When Lithuania declared independence in March 1990, the Soviet ruble remained in circulation while the new government scrambled to establish a functional banking infrastructure. Regional branch emissions like this one — issued specifically under the Šiauliai office rather than the central Vilnius authority — filled an acute transitional gap before the talonas coupons were formally introduced as a parallel currency later in 1991.

The branch-level attribution is unusual and worth noting. Most collector references group these under the general Bank of Lithuania umbrella, but the Šiauliai branch designation makes this a distinct administrative issue, not merely a regional distribution of centrally printed stock.