Catalog
500 Roubles
| Issuer | National Bank of Belarus |
|---|---|
| Year | 1992 |
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| Currency | First Rouble (1992-2000) |
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| Obverse description | The central vignette presents a view of Victory Square in Minsk, with the tall Victory Obelisk rising at right against a multicolour guilloche underprint in red, blue, and yellow tones. At upper left, a decorative square vignette carries a stylised folk-art motif, while the denomination numeral "500" appears in large red letterpress at lower left within an elaborate guilloche rosette. The Belarusian inscription "ПЯЦЬСОТ РУБЛЁЎ" is set across the upper right in bold Cyrillic, with the numeral "500" repeated at upper right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | РАЗЛІКОВЫ БІЛЕТ НАЦЫЯНАЛЬНАГА БАНКА БЕЛАРУСІ 1992 ПАДРОБКА РАЗЛІКОВЫХ БІЛЕТАЎ НАЦЫЯНАЛЬНАГА БАНКА БЕЛАРУСІ ПРАСЛЕДУЕЦЦА ПА ЗАКОНУ 500 (Translation: Payment ticket of the National Bank of Belarus, 1992; Forgery of banknotes of the National Bank of Belarus is prosecuted by law) |
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| Comments |
Belarus introduced its own currency in 1992 as the Soviet ruble collapsed, and this 500-rouble note belongs to the first domestic emission — a series now collectively called "zaichiki" (little hares) after the fauna-themed designs that dominated the lower denominations. The nickname stuck hard enough that it passed into everyday Belarusian idiom for paper money generally, which says something about public attachment to the series despite its short useful life.
Hyperinflation rendered the entire 1992 emission obsolete within a few years. A print run of just over twelve million is modest for a denomination that would quickly become worth almost nothing.