5000 Roubles

The 1923 RSFSR note issues occupy an awkward transitional moment: the Soviet state was simultaneously running down the old sovznak system and preparing the ground for the chervonets reform that had already begun the previous year. These high-denomination sovznaki were being printed into irrelevance almost as fast as they left the press, their face value consumed by hyperinflation before they could meaningfully circulate. A 5000-rouble note in early 1923 represented a fraction of what a 100-rouble note had bought two years prior.

Narkomfin issued several parallel denomination series in 1923, which creates genuine confusion in cataloguing — some notes bear the same nominal value but differ in lithographic detail or paper stock, and are not always consistently distinguished in dealer stock.