5 Roubles Semireche Region

The Semireche Region (Semirechye, in modern southeastern Kazakhstan) was one of dozens of peripheral Russian territories that improvised local currency during the Civil War period, when central monetary authority had collapsed entirely and Bolshevik, White Army, and regional administrations were simultaneously printing their own obligations. The Semireche State Bank notes of 1918 fall into the broad category of "provisional" Civil War emissions — locally authorized, locally circulated, and almost entirely unredeemed.

Semirechye's geographic isolation made the situation acute. Supply lines to European Russia were severed for extended periods, and whatever Kerensky-era imperial notes existed locally were hoarded almost immediately. The regional administration had little choice but to issue its own paper. Survival rate is reasonable precisely because so little of this emission actually passed through enough hands to wear out.