Catalog
25 Roubles
| Issuer | Assignation Bank (Assignatsionny Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1774-1784 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The note is printed on a single side with a typeset text block at centre ordering the Saint Petersburg Bank to pay the bearer twenty-five roubles in coin, dated 1778 and inscribed "Санктпетербургъ". The denomination numeral "25" appears in the upper centre field within a plain border. Three handwritten serial numbers are present — one at upper centre and one each at lower left and lower right — with multiple manuscript signatures of bank officials below the text block. A continuous decorative border of repeated ornamental units frames the entire note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Объявителю сей государственной ассигнации платить Санктпетербургской банкъ двадцать пять рублей ходячею монетою. 1778 года. Санктпетербургъ. |
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| Comments |
The Assignation Bank was established by Catherine the Great in 1769 specifically to issue paper money — a first for Russia — and to relieve the state of the physical burden of carting copper coin, which had become genuinely absurd in scale. A single ruble's worth of copper coin weighed around a kilogram; large transactions required carts. The assignats were intended as receipts against copper deposits, at least in theory.
Early issues including this series suffered chronic counterfeiting, serious enough that the 25-ruble denomination was suspended and redesigned more than once before the end of the eighteenth century. The state never fully solved the problem, and unchecked overprinting ultimately drove assignats to a fraction of their nominal value by the Napoleonic period.