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85 Roubles 5% Freedom Loan Debenture Bond - Type 1
| Issuer | Rostov Office of the State Bank (Russia - Civil war issues) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917-1918 |
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| Value | 85 Roubles |
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| Obverse description | Black on brown underprint, framed by an intricate guilloche border with square corner ornaments. An oval vignette at top centre depicts the Tauride Palace, flanked by laurel branches, with serial numbers printed at upper left and upper right; multiple paragraphs of text and a cluster of signatures fill the central field below the vignette. Two official stamps are applied: a circular ОГБ stamp (Отделения Государственного Банка) and a rectangular stamp, the latter sometimes overlaid with a netting pattern. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | "Fat Stars" watermark pattern |
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| Comments |
The "Freedom Loan" — Zaem Svobody — was launched by the Provisional Government in April 1917, an attempt to keep Russia financially solvent and militarily committed to the war after the February Revolution had already destabilized both. The 5% debenture bonds were designed as a patriotic subscription instrument, sold to the public in exchange for obligations the new government was almost immediately unable to honor.
The Rostov office resorted to issuing these bonds locally as currency substitutes during the Civil War period, when central authority had collapsed and the Don region cycled through multiple competing administrations. The 85-rouble denomination is an artifact of that improvisation — odd face values emerged when bonds were cut from larger sheets for use in daily transactions rather than held as investment instruments.
The watermark present in the paper stock dates to the original Provisional Government printing, confirming these were not locally fabricated but repurposed from genuine bond stock.