10 Kopecks - Military Trade Cheque

Vneshtorgsoyuz — more precisely Внешпосылторг, the Soviet foreign trade parcels agency — issued these trade cheques for use in Beryozka shops, the closed-currency stores accessible only to Soviet citizens with foreign exchange earnings or relatives abroad sending hard currency. The 1976 series circulated alongside earlier Vneshposyltorg issues but was specifically tied to the military personnel network, allowing soldiers stationed abroad to remit a portion of their pay in a controlled scrip rather than in actual foreign currency.

The cheques were non-convertible outside the Beryozka system and could not legally be sold or transferred — a rule widely ignored on the black market, where they traded at steep premiums to their face value.