25 Kopecks Foreign Trade Certificate

Vneshposyltorg certificates were a Soviet mechanism for controlling access to imported goods — holders could spend them at Beryozka shops, which accepted no ordinary rubles. The 1976 series replaced earlier gold-striped certificates that had themselves replaced the original 1961 issue, each revision tightening the distinction between recipients earning foreign currency abroad and those receiving remittances from relatives overseas. By the mid-1970s the two streams had been separated into distinct certificate types with different colored stripes, specifically to prevent black-market mixing.

The kopeck denominations saw heavier circulation than the ruble values — small purchases, change, the friction of daily retail.