3 Roubles A. P. Chekhov

Issued to mark the 150th anniversary of Chekhov's birth, this belongs to a long-running Bank of Russia commemorative program that has produced dozens of literary and cultural pieces — making individual examples easy to overlook. Chekhov died in 1904 at a German spa in Badenweiler, having concealed the severity of his tuberculosis from most of his colleagues for years. His final words, reportedly spoken to his physician, were a request for champagne.