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5 Roubles - Foreign Exchange Certificate
| Issuer | Vneshtorgbank (USSR) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1965-1972 |
| Type | Exchange certificates |
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| Obverse description | Black text on gray-green underprint within a red-brown decorative border frame. Central Cyrillic inscription reads ПЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ with issuer heading ВСЕСОЮЗНОЕ ОБЪЕДИНЕНИЕ ВНЕШПОСЫЛТОРГ above. Serial number, series letter, and a space for institutional stamp appear at lower portion; no security band. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Uniform red-brown print on plain paper with a large central guilloche vignette of interlaced scrollwork enclosed in a scalloped cartouche, set against a lightly tinted background. No text inscriptions appear on the reverse. |
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| Comments |
Vneshtorgbank's Foreign Exchange Certificates were a Soviet mechanism for controlling hard currency access — foreigners earning or spending roubles within the USSR received these notes instead of standard state currency, theoretically entitling them to purchase goods at Beryozka shops unavailable to ordinary Soviet citizens. The parallel economy this created was intentional policy, not a side effect.
The FX series ran in two distinct strip colors, with the yellow-strip variant (FX49 and related) designated for use by non-socialist foreign nationals — a separate blue-strip series served visitors from socialist bloc countries, with deliberately different redemption rights attached to each.
Black market trading in yellow-strip certificates was widespread throughout the Brezhnev years, a persistent problem the authorities never fully suppressed.