3 Roubles Vitte's Emission Law

The 1897 monetary reform led by Finance Minister Sergei Witte placed Russia on the gold standard, but it was Witte's parallel regulation of the State Bank's emission rights — strictly tying rouble issuance to gold reserves — that gave the reform its structural teeth. This 1997 commemorative marks the centennial of that legislation.

The emission law capped unbacked note circulation at 300 million roubles, a ceiling that held until the strains of the Russo-Japanese War forced its abandonment.