2 Kopecks Foreign Exchange Certificate

Vneshtorgbank's Foreign Exchange Certificates — known informally as "cheki" — were a parallel currency system designed to capture hard currency from Soviet citizens who had access to it: sailors, diplomatic staff, technical workers posted abroad. The certificates came in two series distinguished by their strip color, one for convertible currencies, one for socialist-bloc currencies. The 2-kopeck denomination is among the most minor in the system, essentially fractional change within a closed retail ecosystem.

They were valid only at Beryozka shops, where imported goods unavailable in the regular economy could be purchased. Possession of ordinary foreign currency by Soviet citizens was a criminal offense; the certificate system laundered that problem legally while keeping hard currency flows under state control.