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5 Kopecks OGPU Special Purpose Camps
| Issuer | OGPU (Unified State Political Directorate), USSR |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Brown letterpress print on a yellow guilloche underprint with a scalloped border frame. The large numeral '5' occupies the centre, flanked by the denomination 'КОПЕЕК' on either side. Two manuscript signatures appear at the foot, dated 1929. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Brown letterpress text on a pale yellow underprint with a faint central guilloche rosette and plain border frame. The entire face is given over to conditions of use and a forgery warning in Cyrillic, set in spaced capital and mixed-case type. |
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| Comments |
The OGPU labor camp scrip system emerged from a practical problem: how to create an internal economy within the Gulag without allowing prisoners access to regular Soviet currency, which could fund escape attempts or bribery. These fractional-kopeck denominations — among the smallest issued in the series — were nearly worthless outside the wire, which was entirely the point. The scrip could be earned through labor norms and spent at the camp canteen, creating the illusion of wages while keeping money functionally trapped.
1929 was the first year of significant OGPU scrip issuance, coinciding with the rapid expansion of the camp network under Stalin's first Five-Year Plan. Surviving examples are genuinely rare; most were destroyed or simply disintegrated given the conditions under which they circulated.