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5 Roubles
| Issuer | People's Commissariat of Finance (Narkomfin), RSFSR |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed entirely in green, the note is enclosed within an ornate foliate guilloche border with numeral 5 medallions at each corner. The Soviet state emblem appears centrally above the denomination inscription ПЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ in bold Cyrillic text, beneath the legend ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ДЕНЕЖНЫЙ ЗНАК. A guarantee clause reading ОБЕСПЕЧИВАЕТСЯ ВСЕМ ДОСТОЯНИЕМ РЕСПУБЛИКИ is printed below the denomination, followed by two manuscript signature lines for the People's Commissar of Finance and the Cashier, with the serial number АБ-1050 printed twice along the lower margin and the date 1923 appearing in the top and bottom panels. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in green on plain paper, the reverse is enclosed within the same ornate foliate guilloche border as the obverse, with numeral 5 vignettes at each corner. The central field carries a block of Cyrillic text setting out the legal tender decree of 24 October 1922, with a faint circular underprint visible behind the text block. |
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| Comments |
The 1923 RSFSR 5 Rouble note exists at a peculiar moment in Soviet monetary history: the rouble had been so catastrophically inflated during the Civil War years that this series was issued alongside the newly created chervonets, a gold-backed currency the Bolsheviks introduced in late 1922 to stabilise the economy for NEP. The sovznaki — state currency marks, as these rouble-denominated notes were collectively known — were already being phased out even as they were printed.
By 1924, the entire sovznak series was withdrawn and exchanged for the new Treasury roubles at a rate of 50,000 to 1. Notes like this one had a measured, deliberate obsolescence built in from the moment of issue.