5 Roubles

The State Bank of the Russian Empire began issuing credit notes (kreditnyye bilety) in the 1840s under a system that nominally promised specie convertibility — a promise the government suspended repeatedly during wartime fiscal stress. The 1866–1880 series falls in the period following the Crimean War's ruinous drain on silver reserves, when genuine convertibility remained largely theoretical for ordinary holders.

P#A43 is among the less-documented entries in the Pick Russia listings, reflecting genuine scarcity of archival data on the specific print runs and signatories across this fourteen-year span. Signature combinations vary by date, and correctly attributing a given example to its issuing year requires close attention to the countersigning official's term in office.