Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2 Kopecks OGPU Special Purpose Camps
| Issuer | OGPU (Unified State Political Directorate), USSR |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Kopecks (0.02) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Brown letterpress on tan guilloche underprint with a scalloped central vignette. Large numeral "2" at centre flanked by the denomination legend "КОПЕЙКИ" on either side. Issuing authority title appears at top, with two facsimile signatures and the date 1929 at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Лагери Особого Назначения ОГПУ РАСЧЕТНАЯ КВИТАНЦИЯ 2 КОПЕЙКИ Член Коллегии ОГПУ СССР Начальник Финотдела ОГПУ 1929 (Translation: OGPU Special Purpose Camps. Calculation receipt. 2 kopeks. Member of the Collegium of the OGPU USSR. Head of the Finance Department of the OGPU.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The OGPU labor camp scrip series of 1929 is among the most direct paper evidence of the Gulag economy operating as a functional internal market. These notes were issued for use within Solovetsky and other Special Purpose Camps (SLON — Solovetskie Lagerya Osobogo Naznacheniya), where prisoners received wages — notional as they were — credited against their maintenance costs. The scrip could not leave the camp perimeter, effectively trapping purchasing power inside the system that generated it.
The 2-kopeck denomination is the lowest in the series, reflecting actual micro-transactions within camp canteens and stores.