Russian Treasury Notes of 1923

rbethea

Those who follows world currency were perhaps excited when auctioneer Christoph Gärtner (a German auction house) posted their latest auction. It features a superb selection of Russian notes, many of which are remarkably rare. Unfortunately Gärtner's starting prices are extremely high on the rarest notes, but it gives an opportunity to view some real treasures of the old red state.

The "piece de resistance" of the auction is this 1 ruble note from 1923 (uniface):


Their starting price is €100,000 (which is absurd in my opinion, but we'll see) but despite my skepticism regarding their pre-auction evaluation, it is a true rarity of Russian currency. It was never issued, but was an intended note to replace the similar series of 1922, which I've also shown below. All of these were actually issued, despite the examples shown here, of which a couple are specimens (all of these are also in the auction).

1 ruble (note the difference in the guilloche at left), a relatively common note:


3 rubles (a rare note):


5 rubles (also rare):


10 rubles (less common than the 1 ruble, but still relatively available to the collector):


and the 25 ruble note (very rare):


This era of the early 1920s features some of the rarest of Russian currency. I can't explain the historicity of why that's the case (as in the Russian assignats, which were, by law, to be redeemed, rendering those that survived very valuable). Maybe it is because of the volatility of the government at that time and shifts in monetary policy/philosophy.

So the series shown above is the 1922 series. The 1 ruble in the auction is the proposed 1923 issue. In addition to the 1 ruble note, there was also a planned 1/2 ruble note, which is equally, if not more, rare than the 1 ruble. Below is an image of the obverse (all of these are uniface).

Tookybandit

Those are really cool, I like the multi colored patterns they chose! Thanks for posting.

gnat

Perhaps there is some Russian Oligarch who collects Russian paper money who will gladly pay that kind of money for such a rare item?



Cool to see these in any event.

Jim61

Robert, that is a great display and write-up. Thanks for sharing for all of us to see and read about!

techwriter

Great notes and thank you for posting.



Hmmm, 100,000 Euros and a serial # 1 to make it tempting.



Do let us know final hammer price please.

DepressionscripGuy

Very cool notes and a great history. The colors on those notes make what looks like a plain note actually extraordinary in a subtle way. Thanks for sharing.

SaorAlba

Just a minor correction for those not familiar with Russian Cyrillic, the notes are denominated in Chervontsa - Chervontsa is ten rubles. These State Bank notes were allegedly guaranteed by gold, given the "fine gold of 1 zolotnik and 78 dolya" which were contemporary weight measures in Tsarist times and very early in the USSR until the adoption of the metric system.



Chervontsa/Chervontsii as denominations of 10 rubles replaced the old "Imperiala/Imperialii" of the Tsarist era. This denomination was used through the 1937 State Bank notes with Lenin that were used until the 1947 currency reform.

rbethea

Ah yes, dumb error on my part. Thanks for the clarification!

luckybucks

Nice notes Robert.

oklahomadanny

I hope Robert doesn't mind if I post this auction update he sent me by PM. We may not actively collect these but we do like to look at them. Also interesting to see what European auction houses have to offer. Thanks Robert. thumbs up

"Update: the auction house wasn't even close. The big ticket items were too high, no sale on nearly all of them. It's not too surprising. The ruble is incredibly weak right now relative to the dollar/euro so an auction that charges 20%+ commission with high prices is a recipe for a lot of passing, which is exactly what happened. Still, it's really quite the display of rare Russian notes. A very special collection that was (attempted to be) disbursed."