Catalog
5 Talonas 'Coupon'
| Issuer | Lithuania |
|---|---|
| Year | 1991 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 120 × 75 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Dark-purple and gray on blue and gray guilloche underprint. A detailed intaglio vignette of an osprey in flight occupies the center of the note, with denomination numerals '5' repeated at lower left and lower right. |
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| Variants | P#34a - Without text on lower front P#34b - With text on lower front |
| Comments |
Lithuania reintroduced the talonas in May 1991 as a supplementary coupon currency, required alongside Soviet rubles for purchasing rationed goods. The system was designed specifically to prevent ruble-flush buyers from neighboring republics from draining Lithuanian consumer markets during the supply chaos of the late Soviet period. By October 1992 the talonas had become the sole legal tender, before the litas was restored in June 1993.
Spindulys, a Kaunas printing house with roots in interwar Lithuanian publishing, produced the entire talonas series domestically — a deliberate assertion of administrative independence predating formal Soviet recognition of Lithuanian sovereignty.