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100 Roubles
| Issuer | State Bank of the Russian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Государственный Кредитный Билетъ Сто Рублей По предъявленіи выдается изъ разменной кассы Государственного Банка Сто рублей серебромъ или золотомъ монетою Управляющій Кассиръ (Translation: State Credit Note / One Hundred Roubles / Payable on demand from the exchange office of the State Bank / One hundred roubles in silver or gold coin / Manager / Cashier) |
| Reverse description | A fine intaglio portrait of Empress Catherine II (Ekaterina II) is set within an oval vignette at centre, rendered in detailed engraving against a lightly tinted background. The year '1896' appears in bold numerals at top centre, with the denomination '100' repeated in large figures within ornate guilloche rosettes at both left and right. Two columns of printed legal text in Cyrillic flank the central portrait, and the word 'РУБЛЕЙ' runs across the lower portion in large letters beneath the portrait. |
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| Comments |
The 1896 100-Rouble note belongs to the series introduced under Finance Minister Sergei Witte's currency reform, which fixed the rouble to gold at a rate of 1.5 old roubles to 1 new, effectively devaluing the currency by a third. The reform succeeded — Russia maintained gold convertibility from 1897 until the outbreak of war in 1914 — but the transition required an entirely new note series, and this issue was part of that wholesale replacement.
The Expedition for Procurement of State Papers had printed Russian currency since 1818, giving it nearly eight decades of institutional knowledge by the time this note went to press. The watermark runs through the paper itself rather than sitting in a discrete window, a production technique the Expedition had refined over successive series.