20 Kopecks

These tiny notes were emergency currency, issued by the Ministry of Finance after silver coinage disappeared from circulation at the outbreak of the First World War — hoarded by the public almost overnight. The Kazansky expedition of the State Paper Manufactory printed them in Moscow, not St. Petersburg, which was already under severe wartime production strain.

They were explicitly designated as legal tender equivalent to silver coin, a claim the public received with predictable skepticism. Tear lines between notes were often poorly registered, resulting in ragged separations that collectors sometimes mistake for trimming damage.