25 Rubles

The Russian-American Company, a quasi-governmental trading monopoly chartered in 1799 to administer Russia's North American territories, issued these notes for internal circulation in Russian Alaska — not for use in metropolitan Russia. The walrus hide substrate was a direct response to the chronic shortage of paper in remote colonial outposts; shipments from St. Petersburg were irregular at best, and local materials were pressed into service. Leather and hide notes from this company are among the rarest surviving monetary documents of any colonial enterprise.

The series circulated primarily among company employees, indigenous Aleut workers, and traders at Fort Ross and Sitka. Redemption was theoretically guaranteed against company credit, though how rigorously that obligation was honored in practice is a matter of record disputes.