5 Roubles

Vneshtorgbank certificates were not conventional currency — they formed part of a closed parallel system designed to control hard-currency access within the Soviet Union. Foreigners, diplomats, and Soviet citizens with approved foreign earnings used these certificates at Beryozka shops, where imported and otherwise unavailable goods could be purchased. Ordinary Soviet citizens holding standard rubles had no legal access to that network.

The 1979 series replaced an earlier certificate format that carried a distinctive yellow stripe, which had become too easily forged or traded on the black market. Removing the stripe was a deliberate administrative response to that problem, and the stripped-down guilloche underprint of this issue reflects the same concern for discouraging informal exchange.