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| Issuer | Vnesheconombank (Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of the USSR) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Pink-toned cheque on plain paper with text-heavy layout; the denomination '25 РУБЛЕЙ' appears in large numerals at upper right within a guilloche panel. The main body carries the issuing bank name 'БАНК ВНЕШНЕЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ СССР' in bold letterpress, with a manuscript signature line, serial number prefix Г and series Д at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse printed entirely in deep rose-red with an elaborate all-over guilloche pattern composed of interlocking lathe-work spirals and a large central rosette of fine engine-turned lines, leaving no plain field. A narrow guilloche border frames the design on all four sides. |
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| Comments |
Vnesheconombank's foreign exchange certificates — the so-called "yellow series" of 1989 — were a late-Soviet mechanism for managing hard currency access without actually distributing it. Soviet citizens who received foreign remittances, earned foreign wages, or held permitted hard currency could exchange it at Vneshposyltorg and Beriozka outlets for these certificates, which then functioned as a parallel purchasing medium within the closed-currency retail network. The certificates were denominated in rouble face value but pegged implicitly to foreign exchange rates, keeping convertible purchasing power quarantined from the general money supply.
By 1991 the entire Beriozka system had collapsed, and these certificates were rendered functionally worthless before any formal redemption scheme materialized.