10 Dollars 6% Obligation

Mongolia's 1921 independence government faced an immediate practical problem: it had no functioning monetary infrastructure and no established currency. These Treasury obligations were denominated in dollars rather than any Mongolian unit precisely because the dollar carried credibility that a new and internationally unrecognized administration could not manufacture on its own. The 6% interest-bearing structure reflects an attempt to make the notes attractive as instruments of debt rather than simple currency — closer to a war bond than a banknote.

The American Bank Note Company contract is the most telling detail here. Engaging a New York printer required hard-currency payment arranged at considerable remove, almost certainly facilitated through Chinese or Russian intermediary channels during an extraordinarily turbulent moment in Mongolian political history.