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3 Kopecks
| Issuer | Russian Empire (Ministry of Finance) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Green and black letterpress note with a fine guilloche underprint across the entire field. The Imperial Russian double-headed eagle is centred at the top of the design. Large numeral '3' appears at left and right, flanking the denomination legend in bold Cyrillic letterpress text at centre. The note is enclosed within a black Greek-key decorative border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Green and black letterpress design mirroring the obverse colour scheme, with a dense guilloche underprint. The Imperial double-headed eagle appears as a large watermark-style underprint at centre, flanked by bold numeral '3' at upper left and upper right, with the abbreviation 'КОП.' below each. An anti-counterfeiting legend in small Cyrillic letterpress runs along the lower portion of the field, all within a Greek-key border. |
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| Comments |
Russia's acute coin shortage of 1914–1915 forced the Ministry of Finance to issue postage stamp-sized treasury notes in denominations of 1, 2, and 3 kopecks — a stopgap measure after silver and copper coinage vanished from circulation almost immediately after war mobilization began. The public hoarded metal reflexively, and the government's response was essentially to print substitute coinage on paper.
The reverse carries text declaring the note equivalent to divisional coinage and subject to exchange at par. In practice, many Russians treated these with contempt and they circulated hard — heavily thumbed examples are the rule, not the exception.