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500 Roubles Transcaspian Region - British Military Mission
| Issuer | British Military Mission in Transcaspia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE DRAFT OF THE BRITISH MILITARY MISSION On behalf of the British Government I promise to pay 3 months after date to bearer the sum of FIVE HUNDRED ROUBLES. December " " 1918. Major-General British Military Mission. Обязательство Великобританской Военной Миссіи. Именем Великобританскаго Правительства я обязуюсь заплатить чрезъ три мѣсяца съ сего числа предъявителю сего ПЯТЬСОТЪ рублей. for Генераль маіоръ Маллесонъ. Великобританская Военная Миссія. Признано Закаспійскимъ Правительствомъ къ хожденію наравнѣ съ денежными знаками. ВЕЛИКОБРИТАНСКАЯ ВОЕННАЯ МИССІЯ |
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| Protection type | Stamp |
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| Comments |
In the summer of 1918, a small British force under General Wilfrid Malleson entered the Transcaspian region from Persia to counter Bolshevik and anticipated German or Turkish advances into Central Asia. With the local anti-Bolshevik Transcaspian Provisional Government desperately short of functioning currency, the British Military Mission effectively backstopped their finances — this note is a direct product of that arrangement, overprinted or stamped to authenticate existing paper for local use.
The British involvement in Transcaspia was brief, controversial, and ultimately abandoned by mid-1919. Notes issued under these circumstances circulated in an extremely limited geographic and temporal window, which accounts for their scarcity today.