50 Kopecks

Vneshtorgbank certificates were a parallel currency system — technically not legal tender for Soviet citizens in the conventional sense, but accepted at Beriozka hard-currency shops where imported goods and otherwise unobtainable items were sold. The certificates circulated in a closed loop, insulating the state from actual foreign exchange outflows while extracting hard currency from diplomats, foreign workers, and Soviet citizens with earnings abroad.

The 1985–1989 series replaced an earlier Vneshposyltorg certificate system. By 1991 the entire scheme had collapsed alongside the institutions that sustained it, and remaining certificates were rendered worthless almost overnight.