Catalog
5 Kopecks Latvia, Libava, Libau
| Issuer | Libau (Liepāja) City Council |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Printed in dark blue-black ink on a tan guilloche underprint, the obverse carries the Cyrillic issuer legend in ornate calligraphic lettering along the upper arc. A central circular vignette contains the heraldic lion of Libau — rampant, facing left — enclosed within a dotted border. The denomination appears in two solid dark cartouches at lower left and lower right, expressed in Kopecks and Copecs respectively, flanked on either side by the inscription РАЗМЕННЫЙ ЗНАКЪ (exchange token). An anti-forgery warning runs along the lower centre. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse repeats the same typographic and vignette layout as the obverse, printed in a darker black ink without the tan background tint, giving a higher-contrast appearance. The issuer name in calligraphic Cyrillic script arches across the top, and the central heraldic lion vignette within its circular border occupies the centre field. Denomination cartouches at lower left and right again read 5 Коп. and 5 Сор., with the anti-forgery warning centred below the vignette. |
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| Comments |
Libau — the heavily Germanized port city on the Baltic coast — was occupied by German forces in May 1915, but this note predates that occupation. The Libau City Council issued these small-denomination emergency pieces in the early months of the war as metal coinage vanished from circulation almost immediately after mobilization began. Municipal authorities across the Russian Empire scrambled to fill the vacuum with locally printed scrip, and Libau was among the first Latvian cities to do so.
The unlisted Pick status reflects how poorly documented these hyperlocal wartime issues remain. Many were printed in tiny runs, circulated within a single town, and survived in negligible quantities.