Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
3 Kopecks
| Issuer | Soviet Union |
|---|---|
| Year | 1924 |
| 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 | 53 x 83 mm |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The Soviet state arms appears at upper centre, above the large numeral '3' as a pale underprint in the centre of the note. The denomination is printed in bold Cyrillic text reading ТРИ КОПЕЙКИ, with the inscription ИМЕЮТ ХОЖДЕНИЕ НАРАВНЕ С СЕРЕБРЯНОЙ МОНЕТОЙ (circulates at par with silver coin) below, and the year date 1924 at foot. The entire design is enclosed within a geometric guilloche border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 3 ТРИ КОПЕЙКИ ТРИ КОПІЙКИ ТРЫ КАПЕЙКІ სამი კაპეიკი ԵՐՔ ԿՈՊԵԿ اوچ قبه С.С.С.Р. |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Soviet postage stamp money issues of 1924 occupy a peculiar corner of monetary history. Following the near-total collapse of the ruble under War Communism and the hyperinflation that followed, the early USSR resorted to stamp-currency as a stopgap while the State Bank rebuilt a credible monetary base under the New Economic Policy. These 3-kopeck notes were essentially postage stamps mounted on cardboard-backed paper, issued in lieu of fractional coinage that simply did not exist in sufficient quantity.
The chronic small-change shortage was severe enough that the Soviet government explicitly authorized postage stamps as legal tender — a measure with tsarist precedent, as Nicholas II had done the same thing during World War I when silver disappeared from circulation.