Catalog
25 Silver Roubles
| Issuer | Expedition of State Credit Bills (Экспедиция государственных кредитных билетов) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1843-1865 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | At top centre, a crowned imperial double-headed eagle within an ornate shield, flanked by decorative foliate branches. The central text panel carries the denomination numeral 25 in both lower corners alongside a Cyrillic text block, within a structured border of repeating guilloche ornamental elements. Three manuscript signatures appear below the main text, with the serial number printed twice in the lower portion of the note. |
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| Reverse description | The reverse bears a lengthy Cyrillic legislative text extracted from the Imperial Manifesto on Credit Bills, arranged in numbered articles across the full face of the note. A large crowned double-headed imperial eagle vignette is centrally placed as an underprint or central device amid the text columns, with a fine guilloche decorative border enclosing the entire composition. |
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| Comments |
The Expedition of State Credit Bills was Russia's own state printing bureau, established under Nicholas I specifically to bring note production under direct government control — ending dependence on foreign printers. These 25 Rouble credit bills were fully backed by a silver reserve, a legally mandated ratio that distinguished them from the assignats they replaced, which had collapsed under unchecked issuance during the Napoleonic period.
The silver rouble denomination in the note's title was not ornamental — holders retained a theoretical right of redemption in specie throughout most of this series' circulation life, a promise the government managed to keep until the Crimean War fiscal strain forced suspension of convertibility in 1858.