Banknotes

The historical museum’s collection of paper money numbers about 2,700 items, among them banknotes, securities, postage stamps, various fiscal stamps and paper tokens, fare tokens and rationing documents. Most of it consists of banknotes, which by their right of circulation are divided into legal tender (issued in the name of the state) and non-obligatory (local, private and self-financing). The latter arise in conditions of a disrupted monetary system and destroyed economic relations; the largest number of them falls in the periods of revolutions, the Civil War and the first years of peaceful construction (1917–1925).

The first paper money in Russia were assignats, which are represented in the museum’s collection by only 5 examples: specimens of 1769–1785 are absent; the issue of 1786–1818 is represented by an assignat of 1811 for 25 roubles, one of 1812 for 5 roubles and one of 1815 for 10 roubles, and the issue of 1818–1843 by a fragment of an assignat of 1819 for 5 roubles and an assignat of 1839 for 25 roubles. The notes of the last period differed considerably from their predecessors: they were made in the classicist style, were distinguished by clarity of image and perfection of design, and bore the coat of arms of the Russian Empire.

Among these few examples of assignat circulation in Russia, one is a forgery.

History shows that as soon as money appeared, people began to counterfeit it. For example, the ancient Mexicans cut open cacao pods, which were an exchange equivalent on the market, took out the beans, which were what had value, then filled the pods with some other substance, glued them shut again and passed them off as full-value. In the 19th and 20th centuries, individual states were already engaged in producing counterfeit banknotes in order to ruin or economically weaken their foreign enemies. Thus, before Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, by his order counterfeit assignats were issued, one of which, an assignat of 1811 for 25 roubles, has found its way into our collection.

As a result of the reform of 1839–1843, assignats were replaced by state credit notes, of which the museum collection gives only an occasional idea. A 1-rouble note of 1865 and a 5-rouble note of 1861 represent the period 1843–1865, while a 25-rouble note of 1866 with the monogram of Alexander II and a portrait of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Romanov) and a 5-rouble note of 1894 with the monogram of Alexander III illustrate the influence of the so-called “Russian” style in the design of banknotes (ceremonial portraits of Russian historical figures, images of imperial monograms, maximum saturation with decorative detail).

The reform of S. Yu. Witte in 1895–1897 introduced in Russia a monetary system of gold monometallism. The state credit note of 1898 worth 5 roubles represents the banknotes of the first post-reform years, whose text attested that they could be exchanged for gold coin. The subsequent design of state credit notes underwent significant changes under the influence of Art Nouveau, which took shape at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; the images on them often surpassed in complexity and refinement the drawings and engravings of the best artists. Our collection has all denominations of the so-called “Romanov” credit notes: 1 rouble of the 1898 type, 3 roubles of 1905, 5 and 10 roubles of 1909, 25 roubles of 1909 with a portrait of Alexander III, 50 roubles of 1899 with a portrait of Nicholas I, 100 roubles of 1910 with a portrait of Catherine II, and 500 roubles of 1912 with a portrait of Peter I. They were in circulation until 1922 and were issued in different years, while the design and date stayed constant for a given type. The overwhelming number of these banknotes in the museum’s collection belongs to the last period when notes of this type were in circulation, as shown by the signature of the Governor of the State Bank, I. Shipov, on them.

With the beginning of the First World War a small-change crisis arose, illustrated by stamp-money of 1 and 2 kopecks (with overprinted numerals, the second type) and of 3, 10, 15 and 20 kopecks (the first type), issued with designs of the postage stamps of 1913 devoted to the jubilee of the House of Romanov; treasury notes worth 1, 2, 3, 5 and 50 kopecks with designs of the Russian coat of arms; and 1-rouble credit notes of the 1898 type with a simplified design (only the series number, without the individual number of the note).

The money of the Provisional Government is represented in the collection by state credit notes worth 250 roubles (the “greens”, with a double-headed eagle without the attributes of tsarist power) and 1,000 roubles (the “Duma” notes, with an image of the State Duma), 5-rouble credit notes of the 1909 type with a simplified design, treasury notes of 20 and 40 roubles (“Kerensky notes”) and stamp-money worth 1, 2 and 3 kopecks (without the coat of arms of the Russian Empire on the reverse).

The revolutions and the Civil War tore the country into parts that separated from one another both politically and economically because of military action and the collapse of transport and communications. The delivery of money from the centre stopped, and the money hunger in the localities led to various local issues of money. Only on the territory controlled by the Government of the RSFSR were banknotes recognised by the Soviet central authorities constantly kept in circulation, and even they were often supplemented by series of small-change money issued by local bodies. In other territories monetary chaos reigned, caused by the frequent change of banknotes issued by temporary authorities. Most governments, regarding the right to issue money as the main sign of power, tried to issue their own banknotes. In all, on the territory of war-torn Russia in those years there were about 2,200 kinds of money of different origin and names. In the museum’s collection of banknotes of this period the following groups can be singled out:

• issues of local branches and offices of the State Bank: Arkhangelsk, Orenburg, Blagoveshchensk, Vladivostok, Yelysavethrad, Yekaterinodar, Tashkent, Ashgabat, Transcaspian, Kislovodsk, Yerevan, Katerynburg, Rostov-on-Don and others;
• issues of local self-government bodies: small-change notes of Mogilev Governorate, temporary credit notes of the Tsaritsyn city self-government, of the Baku city board and of the council of the Baku city economy, small-change notes of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Terek Republic of 1918, notes of the Regional Executive Committee of the Soviets of the North Caucasus, bonds of the Transcaucasian Commissariat of 1918, bonds of the Sochi city administration, small-change notes of the Mineralnye Vody city self-government, of the Piatigorsk city board and of the Piatigorsk district council, notes of the Batumi treasury and others;
• issues of local and White Guard governments: 5% short-term obligations of the Provisional Government of the Northern Region (Arkhangelsk), banknotes of the North-Western Volunteer Army (General of Infantry Yudenich), notes of the State Treasury of the Main Command of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia (Denikin), short-term obligations of the State Treasury (Kolchak), banknotes of the Crimean Regional Government, obligations of the Kuban Regional Government, the “Ashgabat bonds” of the Transcaspian government, treasury notes of the Siberian Provisional Government, and bonds of the Chita branch of the State Bank (Ataman Semionov);
• banknotes of new national formations: the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani republics, the North Caucasian SSR, the Federative SSR of Transcaucasia, temporary credit notes of the Turkestan region and credit notes of the Far Eastern Republic;
• issues of large societies and institutions: loan notes of the Vladikavkaz Railway company, bonds of the Russo-Asiatic Bank (Harbin), advance cards of the Amur regional credit union, coupons of the Kyshtym Mining Works company, temporary banknotes of the Kramatorsk Metallurgical Society and others.

A money famine developed in Ukraine as well, and the Ukrainian government had to begin introducing its own currency. In 1917–1920, 24 kinds of banknotes were put into circulation in Ukraine, 21 of which are represented in various numbers in the museum’s collection.

The first Ukrainian banknote was the state credit note of the Ukrainian People’s Republic “100 karbovanets”, which appeared on 5 January 1918. It was created by H. Narbut. It is interesting that the trident shown on its face was declared the State Coat of Arms of Ukraine only 54 days after the note appeared, on 1 March 1918. Besides the trident (with a cross, not the classical variant), on the first banknote we see a crossbow (the coat of arms of the city of Kyiv) and a floral ornament decorating the face and the reverse of the note. In the centre of the note is an octagonal cartouche in which there is again a trident with a cross and text. Under the cartouche are the letters “H.N.” for Heorhii Narbut. On the reverse the face value “One hundred karbovanets” is written in Russian, Polish and Yiddish. All the notes bear one series, AD, and one number, 185. This money was issued without a watermark, on ordinary paper, so quite a few counterfeit banknotes of rather high quality appeared in circulation. The main difference of the forged notes was that the signatures and the series were printed in brown ink (on genuine ones, in black). Among the people these notes were nicknamed “horpynky” (after the ornament traditionally embroidered on women’s aprons, the horpynky), “kulzhenky” (after the surname of the owner of the printing house where they were printed) or “scrambled eggs” (after the overall bright yellow tone). Most of them were printed in the “tête-bêche” manner (with the face and reverse oriented in opposite directions). Today this paper money, a monument of past historical events in Ukraine, is very rare. The note is a masterpiece of the new Ukrainian graphic art in its use of traditional forms, the fundamental character of their modernisation and the richness of its range of subjects.

The issues of the Central Rada are reflected in the museum’s collection by the State Treasury notes of “25 karbovanets” and “50 karbovanets”, nicknamed “shovels” by the people (they show a peasant leaning on a shovel), and by paper small-change money worth 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 shahiv (“butterflies” among the people, because of their small size).

From the series of 3.6% internal-loan bonds called the “State Treasury Note”, which were ordered by the Central Rada in Germany from a sketch by H. Narbut and went into circulation under Hetman P. P. Skoropadskyi, the collection of the Kharkiv Historical Museum has only one note worth 200 hryvnias with three coupons and two coupons separately: worth 1 hryvnia 80 shahiv (from a note of 100 hryvnias) and 3 hryvnias 60 shahiv (from a note of 200 hryvnias). The bonds were printed with coupons, 4 on one side and 4 on the other. The coupons unfolded like the wings of an aeroplane, which is why these notes received the name “aeroplanes” among the people. They were also called “series”. At first they were introduced as securities, but because of the shortage of banknotes in circulation, the bonds and separate coupons began to be used as money.

All the other banknotes issued under the Hetman are fully represented in the museum’s collection: credit notes of 2, 10, 100 and 500 hryvnias (ordered earlier by the Central Rada in Germany, the last three from a sketch by H. Narbut) and 1,000 and 2,000 hryvnias already with the name of the issuer, “the Ukrainian State”, which is what Ukraine was called under the Hetman.

The collection also keeps examples of banknotes issued by the Directorate:

• the small-change note “5 hryvnias” (printed in Stanyslaviv, now Ivano-Frankivsk, made up of separate elements of cliches prepared earlier; printed in haste, so it is found with an error: in the word “hryvnias” the letter “r” is missing (“hyvnias”); today these are very rare paper notes);
• State Treasury notes of 10, 25, 100, 250 and 1,000 karbovanets (the last three made from cliches that had been prepared under the Hetman).

The “100 karbovanets” notes were printed in Kamianets-Podilskyi from a sketch by the artist H. Narbut. On the face, on the allonge (the white field), is an embossed seal with an image of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, which is why the people nicknamed them “Bohdanivky”.

The 1,000-karbovanets notes (sketch by Hryhorii Zolotov) are among the best banknotes. They are made in the style of the Ukrainian Baroque. On the reverse are two female figures with a trident and the numeral “1000” between them. On the left, in the hand of a man, is the hetman’s mace; on the right, in the hand of a woman, a horn of plenty. The notes’ name, “hetmanky”, comes from the mace.

Among the city issues of Ukraine are small-change notes of the cities of Zhytomyr, Mohyliv-Podilskyi and Odesa, of the Yelysavethrad branch of the State (People’s) Bank, bonds of the Kamianets-Podilskyi city board, and a bond or small banknote of the city of Proskuriv.

In 1917–1924 money in the localities was issued by many organisations, enterprises and even private persons. In Kharkiv, for example, about 80 organisations issued money. More than 400 different denominations and their variants were produced. They mainly circulated within an inner circle, because these associations had their own distribution points, shops, canteens, cafés, workshops, kindergartens and so on. But some money was used by various organisations and even by residents of the city. Unfortunately, in the museum’s paper money collection this Kharkiv local money is represented only in part: cheques of the Kharkiv Savings and Loan Union “Avtokredyt”, coupons of the Kharkiv Consumer Union, cheques of the Kharkiv Governorate Union of Consumer Societies, orders on the cash desk of the student cooperative at the Kharkiv Technological Institute, cheques of the executive bureau of the trade-union cell of the economics department of the Technological Institute, goods stamps of the workers’ cooperative “Pishchevkus”, bonds of the “Elektrosila” plant, cheques of the garrison Red Army club “Griaduschee”, cheques of the Central Party Club and of the club of cooperative employees, and orders of “Donbastorg”.

The banknotes of pre-revolutionary types were replaced by Soviet money.

The processes of money circulation in the RSFSR and then in the USSR are quite fully represented in the museum’s collection:

• banknotes of the RSFSR: money of a simplified type in 1, 2, 3 and then 5 and 50 roubles of 1919, state credit notes of 1918 (“Piatakovky”), settlement notes of 15, 30 and 60 roubles, “radzhnaky” of all denominations from 100 to 100,000 roubles, and short-term interest-free obligations of the RSFSR of 1921 worth 1, 5 and 10 million roubles;
• banknotes of the reform of 1922–1924: all 10 denominations of the “State Banknotes of the RSFSR of 1922”, from 1 to 1,000 roubles; banknotes of the stamp type of all denominations (1, 3, 5, 10, 25 and 50 roubles); notes of the 1923 type from 50 kopecks to 5,000 roubles; “State Banknotes of the USSR” of 10,000 and 15,000 roubles; State Bank of the RSFSR bank notes worth 1 and 10 chervontsi (the first stable Soviet banknote); the USSR treasury note of 1924 worth 1 rouble in gold; and small-change bonds of 1, 2, 3 and 5 kopecks;
• banknotes of the USSR: treasury notes of the 1925, 1934 and 1938 types, USSR State Bank notes of the 1926–1928 and 1937 types (chervontsi), and treasury notes and USSR State Bank notes of the 1947, 1961 and 1991 types.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the former republics, which became sovereign states, sought a way out of the crisis and means of protecting their consumer markets in conditions of difficult economic destabilisation. One of the first measures was strengthening their finances by issuing their own currency.

The museum collection makes it possible to illustrate the stages of Ukraine’s issuing of its own money:

1. consumer cards (“consumer coupons”, “coupon sheets”) for 20, 50, 75, 100 and 200 roubles. From 3 November 1990, all institutions, enterprises and organisations began to issue consumer cards (sheets with coupons) together with wages in Soviet roubles. When buying goods, one had to pay in roubles and give coupons for the same sum, which were cut off the sheet;
2. reusable karbovanets coupons, in essence temporary money, of all denominations. They were introduced from 1 January 1992 to replace the “coupon sheets”. The first karbovanets coupons in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 karbovanets with the date “1991” were without numbering and other security features, had identical designs and differed only in face value and colour. Galloping inflation led to a constant increase in the face value of these banknotes. In May 1995 notes of 1 million karbovanets entered circulation;
3. Ukrainian banknotes worth 1, 2, 5 and 10 hryvnias.

From 2 September 1996 a new currency in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 hryvnias was introduced in Ukraine.

Separate specimens of paper money of other states have also found their place in the collection of the Kharkiv Historical Museum: Austria-Hungary (1912–1917), Serbia (1941–1943), the Czechoslovak Republic, Poland (1919, 1940–1944), Romania, Hungary and Germany (1904–1942). Among the latter are witnesses of the inflation of the German mark during the First World War (notes of 2 million and 10 million marks and a note of 1,000 marks with the overprint “1 billion marks”), a special banknote for internal use (a money coupon worth 3 reichsmarks for German criminal and political prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp) and occupation banknotes for Ukraine, Ukrainian karbovanets (Rivne, 1942).

The “Paper Money” group also presents examples of various securities:

• bonds (tickets) of internal lottery loans of 1865, 1866, 1905 and 1914, State Treasury notes of 1915, certificates of state annuity, bonds of the State Military Short-Term Loan of 1915 and 1916, notes of the State Internal Lottery Loan of 1917, bonds of the “Freedom Loan” and coupons to them;
• mortgage bonds of the Moscow, Poltava, State Noble and Kharkiv land banks;
• bills of exchange of individuals and specimens of bill-of-exchange paper;
• bonds of the USSR state internal loans: the grain loans of 1922 and 1923, the All-Union Loan for the Promotion of Science and Technology, the loan of workers’ proposals, the loan of proposals on realising the six conditions of victory, the loan of ideas, the loan for strengthening the defence of the USSR, the loan for the rebuilding and development of the USSR national economy and others;
• lottery tickets: charity (1891), student, All-Union auto-moto-bicycle lottery of Avtodor, Osoaviakhim, and money-and-goods lotteries.

The paper money collection also includes postage stamps and envelopes, which can be regarded as a kind of single-use paper coin with a strictly defined purpose. For the most part they are devoted to outstanding people or events: space exploration, anniversaries of historical events, congresses, festivals and so on.

Our collection also includes stamps that are marks of various kinds of payment other than postal: payment of taxes, of passage over bridges, “payment for the distance travelled”, the tax on carts, “for inspection of meat by weight”, “for inspection of piglet carcasses”, payment of local, resort, railway, passport and seasonal fees, chancery and court duties, membership dues and so on.

A certain number of stamps and paper tokens of the 1910s–1930s are evidence of charitable donations: for the poor, the wounded, prisoners of war, refugees, holders of the Order of St George, children and orphans of soldiers, for the benefit of soldiers’ families, for the benefit of hospitals, for warm clothing for the Volunteer Army, for help to the starving, for the fight against tuberculosis, for help to the children of political prisoners, for building the submarine “Militant Atheist”, for the benefit of the air fleet, for the motorisation fund of the Red Army and others.

The collection also reflects fare tokens for urban transport: “Change of 2 kopecks, which is accepted in payment for a tram fare” of the Belgian company of the Rostov-on-Don tram; stamps that were exchanged for a ticket when travelling by tram; tickets for the Kharkiv tram of 1902; and single and monthly passes of the 1990s–2000s.

The “Paper Money” group also has some rationing documents of various times: tobacco-sale stamps (pre-revolutionary), a coupon for receiving 2,000 grams of milk, children’s bread-and-food cards of 1920, an attached bread coupon for January 1948, a service food card for January 1948, and limit books for manufactured-goods shops and restaurants of 1945–1946.

As we see, the museum’s paper money collection is quite varied and interesting. It requires further detailed study, but even now it can and should be used as fully as possible in the museum’s display practice. Banknotes and bonds (paper money that has gone out of circulation and securities that circulated together with money) not only reflect the history of money circulation but also convey the character of a specific era. Their design reflects the cultural traditions and artistic tastes of society, and changes in individual components of the design make it possible to trace essential changes in the political and economic life of society. Thus, for example, the beginning of the history of Ukrainian paper state money coincided in time with the period of Ukraine’s national and cultural revival, so the Ukrainian state issues naturally reflect the people’s striving to have their own statehood, sovereignty and unity of their lands. Money had to unite society, so emblems related to the all-national symbols under which the struggle for national revival was waged appeared on it.

Besides their purely historical value, banknotes and bonds are of considerable interest from an artistic point of view. A vivid example is the notes made from sketches by H. Narbut. They are works of art of world level, a symbol of the artistic and spiritual creativity of the Ukrainian people, and are known far beyond Ukraine. In these banknotes are concentrated the achievements of graphic art, drawing and ornament, and the achievements of science and technology of the corresponding period.