60 Roubles Khabarovsk

The 60 Rouble denomination is one of the more peculiar choices to emerge from the chaotic regional currency issues that proliferated across the Russian Far East following the Bolshevik seizure of power. Standard Imperial and Provisional Government denominations ran in conventional multiples; 60 Roubles fits neither sequence, and its existence almost certainly reflects the practical need to bundle three 20-Rouble notes into a single instrument for local payroll or supply purposes.

The Khabarovsk Branch operated with considerable autonomy during this period, as the city changed hands multiple times between 1918 and 1920 among White forces, Japanese interventionists, and eventually the Red Army. Notes authenticated only by an official seal — no serial numbering system of any sophistication — were vulnerable to copying, and counterfeits of Far Eastern emergency issues are well documented in the literature.