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17 Roubles 5% Freedom Loan Debenture Bond - Type 3
| Issuer | Rostov-on-Don Office of the State Bank (Russia - Civil war issues) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918-1920 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Black on yellow underprint, with an oval vignette at upper centre portraying the Tauride Palace (seat of the State Duma), flanked by laurel branches; the serial number appears twice, at upper left and upper right. The central field is occupied by bold title text above multiple paragraphs of smaller body text, terminating in a cluster of signatures, all enclosed within an intricate guilloche border with square corner ornaments. Two official stamps are applied: a circular ОГБ stamp reading «Ростовская на Дону Контора Государственного Банка» and a rectangular stamp certifying the note's issue as currency in the amount of seventeen roubles. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Black on rose underprint, with bold large-format text at the top of the field followed by multiple paragraphs of densely set body text occupying the central and lower portions of the note, concluding with a row of signatures at the foot. The composition is strictly typographic, without pictorial vignettes, relying on the contrast of text weights and the tinted underprint for visual structure. |
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| Comments |
During the Russian Civil War, the State Bank's Rostov-on-Don office issued fractional bond coupons as emergency currency — a direct consequence of catastrophic coin and small-denomination note shortages across the Don region. This particular type circulated alongside White Army military scrip and competing Soviet issues, all trading at wildly unstable rates against one another depending on which force controlled a given town that week.
The "Freedom Loan" itself was a Provisional Government debt instrument from 1917, never redeemed. Using its detached coupons as circulating currency was a practical improvisation — the paper already existed, the denominations were awkward but usable, and nobody expected permanence.