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!
34 Roubles 5% Freedom Loan Debenture Bond - Type 1
| Issuer | Rostov Office of the State Bank (Russia - Civil war issues) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917-1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 34 Roubles |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Black on greenish underprint, framed by an intricate guilloche border with square corner ornaments. At the top centre, an oval vignette of the Tauride Palace — seat of the State Duma — is flanked by laurel branches; the serial number appears twice, at upper left and upper right. The central field carries bold heading text above multiple paragraphs of smaller text concluding with a cluster of signatures, and the note bears at least two official stamps: a circular ОГБ (Отделения Государственного Банка) stamp and a rectangular stamp, the latter sometimes overlaid with a netting impression. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Black on rose underprint. The upper portion carries a bold, large-format heading, below which multiple paragraphs of tightly set text fill the field in a uniform letterpress arrangement; the lower portion is occupied by a cluster of printed signatures. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 34 Rouble denomination is one of the stranger artifacts of the Civil War period. It was not an arbitrary figure — these bonds were issued at a 15% discount against the 40-Rouble face value of the Freedom Loan (Zaïm Svobody) series, making the math deliberate if counterintuitive for everyday users. The Freedom Loan itself was launched by the Provisional Government in April 1917 to fund continued participation in the First World War, but by the time the Rostov office was producing circulating debentures from the bond stock, the Provisional Government no longer existed.
Rostov-on-Don became a key monetary center for anti-Bolshevik forces through 1918, and existing bond paper was pressed into service as emergency currency — a pragmatic reuse of official tsarist-era financial instruments to fill the void left by the collapse of normal note supply. The watermarked paper is original to the bond stock, not added for the currency application.