25 Roubles

Russia's first paper currency, issued by Catherine II's newly established Assignation Bank in 1769. The notes were conceived partly as a fiscal convenience — moving silver across the empire's vast distances was genuinely costly and dangerous — but also as a way to fund the ongoing war with the Ottoman Empire without openly debasing the coinage.

Early issues are notorious for a crude but consequential vulnerability: forgers simply altered the denomination numeral in ink, since the text was largely handwritten or lightly printed. The government was forced to redesign the series within a few years precisely because of this problem.