3 Kopecks Altai

Altai Guberniya's regional treasury scrip from 1923 sits at the tail end of the Soviet sovznak period, issued when Moscow's centrally printed currency was arriving in the provinces too slowly — or not at all — to keep local trade functioning. These small-denomination notes were a practical stopgap, authorized under the broader NEP framework that briefly tolerated such regional monetary improvisation before the 1924 chervonets reform swept them into obsolescence.

The handstamp is the authentication mechanism here, not a later addition. Without it, the note was void.