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10 Roubles - Foreign Exchange Certificate
| Issuer | Vneshtorgbank (Внешпосылторг) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1965-1967 |
| Type | Exchange certificates |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ВСЕСОЮЗНОЕ ОБЪЕДИНЕНИЕ «ВНЕШПОСЫЛТОРГ» СЕРТИФИКАТ на получение товаров на сумму ДЕСЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ Серия А |
| Reverse description | Plain pale paper reverse with a central oval guilloche vignette in dark brown, composed of intricate lathe-work scrollwork. A circular control stamp impression is visible at left, with handwritten annotations overlaying the vignette. |
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| Comments |
Vneshtorgbank's foreign exchange certificates were a Soviet solution to a persistent problem: how to let privileged citizens spend hard currency without actually letting them hold it. The blue-strip series (1965–1967) was accepted at Beriozka shops — the closed retail network where imported and otherwise unobtainable goods could be purchased — effectively creating a parallel consumer economy invisible to ordinary Soviet life.
These certificates were issued to Soviet citizens repatriated earnings, diplomats, and select foreign workers in lieu of actual foreign banknotes. Possession of genuine Western currency remained a criminal offense, so the certificate served as a sanitized proxy. The striped border color coding distinguished denomination tiers and, more importantly, the source of the foreign exchange — a distinction that mattered enormously to the issuing bureaucracy.
Forgery attempts were documented, which prompted the redesign series that followed in the early 1970s.