5 Kopecks

Vneshtorgbank's small-denomination certificates were issued exclusively for use in Beriozka shops — the hard-currency retail network that allowed the Soviet state to extract foreign exchange from diplomats, sailors, and Soviet citizens with access to foreign earnings. The 5 kopeck certificate had genuine purchasing power within that system, tradeable for imported goods unavailable anywhere else in the domestic economy. Ordinary Soviet citizens caught in possession of these certificates without authorization faced serious legal consequences under currency control statutes that remained in force until the late Gorbachev period.