Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Kopecks Alaska
| Issuer | Russian-American Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1815-1862 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Other |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | МАРКА ВЪ АМЕРИКЪ 50 КОП |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ЕГО ИМП: ВЕЛИЧ: ПОКРОВИТ: РОССІЙС: АМЕРИКАНС: КОМПАНІЙ ПЕЧАТЬ ПОДЪ Пятьдесятъ копѣекъ |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Russian-American Company's parchment scrip is among the most materially unusual instruments in the entire history of colonial currency. Issued not by a state but by a chartered monopoly operating at the far edge of the Russian Empire, these notes functioned as a closed-loop medium — redeemable only at Company stores, ensuring that wages paid to workers and promyshlenniki circulated back to the issuer. Walrus hide was the practical choice: paper would not survive the humidity and rough handling of Alaskan trading posts.
The Company held its monopoly charter from 1799. By the 1860s, with the RAC financially weakened and Russian interest in the territory fading, these notes were among the last instruments the colony produced before the 1867 sale to the United States.