100 Roubles The History of Russian Currency

Part of the Bank of Russia's long-running commemorative series documenting the history of domestic currency, this 2009 issue falls within a group examining pre-Petrine and early imperial monetary traditions. The series drew on objects held by the Hermitage and the State Historical Museum, and several designs were developed in direct consultation with those collections' curatorial staff.

Russia's gold coinage history is complicated by repeated recoinage decrees — Peter I's monetary reforms of the early 18th century deliberately broke continuity with Muscovite weight standards, making earlier gold issues deliberately obsolete.