Goznak - 100th Anniversary of the birth of Sergei Korolev

Goznak issued this commemorative sheet in 2007 to mark a century since the birth of Sergei Korolev, the chief rocket designer whose identity was classified by the Soviet state for most of his working life — he appeared in public documentation only as "Chief Designer," and his name was not officially disclosed until his obituary in 1966. The irony of commemorating, by name and portrait, a man the USSR spent decades actively concealing is not lost on collectors of Soviet and post-Soviet ephemera.

As a Goznak printing house souvenir rather than a circulating banknote, its primary interest lies in production context: Goznak has used such sheets since the late Soviet period to demonstrate security printing capabilities to institutional clients.