1923 - one wierd year?

[gxseries]

In 1923 when the Russian revolution occured, coinage took a sharp turn and there were NO 50 kopeks and 1 rubles minted in this particular year. But for some bizarre reason, chervonetz, usually denoted as 10 rubles have been minted ONLY in that particular year. (except in 1924, there were some trials made, but most of them were melted down) Why? Was silver temporarily scarce at that time?

 

Another mystery would be this:

 

 

Yes, it doesn't seem to be of much significance value, BUT there is something worth to be mentioned.

 

In 1924, some of the earliest Soviet trial examples were designed, and these are the prototypes that could have been in circulation. Now notice the relative similarity to the three examples:

 

 

The 1923 and 24 example could easily be made by some Tsar lover who just took the previous design and modify the design.

 

Now this is confusing: was there a demand for such 50 kopeks or the same artist decided to try again in the 1924 trial examples? Note, this paper token is not randonly photoshopped and printed, but instead does have watermark in it. (Will take photograph soon) A quick check on Ron Wise seem to show that it DOES exist, under banknote section... http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/countries/russia_regular.html

 

Perhaps paper token / banknote collectors will be able to answer it, but for now, I cannot understand the reason why this coin looking design paper token exists at the moment. P.S. I am not really a banknote collector, so I have no idea what it could be.

[Tane]

I think I didn't quite understand your question, but the 50 kopek note is just an ordinary paper token which was issued due the lack of change. They are quite often found in uncut sheets too.

The mintages of silver coins during that period are so low(looks quite high on catalogues, but think how many people there were) that paper tokens were needed.

1, 2, 3, 5 and 50 kopek notes were issued in 1924, as far as I remember.

The early banknote history of the RSFSR and the USSR is indeed very confusing.

 

 

And the revolution was ofcourse in 1917

[gxseries]

Ah that probably answers more than half of my questions. But Tane, don't you think it's a coincedence that the pattern 1924 coins made similar to the paper token? Or people at that time were still royal to the Tsar?

[Scottishmoney]

I think it had less to do with loyalty or longing for the Tsar, but more to do with it was a familiar design, was popular. If a Tsarist eagle appeared, surely the designer would have been shot.

 

Notice sometime the remarkable similarity of the 1947 USSR state bank notes with the Tsarist banknotes, they were a popular design, but the eagle was replaced of course with a hammer and sickle. The 1947 USSR notes are some of my favourite Russian banknotes.

[gxseries]

Ah thanks Scottishmoney

[grivna1726]

It is also important to consider the economic conditions within Russia at the time.

 

Following the Communist counter-revolution by the Leninists which resulted in the overthrow of the revolutionary government of Alexander Kerensky (Kerensky was a democratic socialist not so different from many current European leaders) and the beginning of a totalitarian state, the Communists soon ran the economy into the ground. They financed their expenditures with the familiar printing press method.

 

This resulted in a runaway inflation in which the value of the ruble was destroyed and huge denomination notes were required. Here is an example from the link gx gives at the beginning of this thread:

 

That's a ten million rubles note!!!

 

In order to maintain their grip on Russia, it was necessary to try to bring some semblance of order to the economy before it collapsed completely. So the Communists made a temporary strategic retreat by loosening up their control and allowing more economic freedom for the people. This was Lenin's "New Economic Policy" or "NEP" (two steps forward, then one step back).

 

To gain the cooperation of the people, it was necessary to have a currency that they would be willing to accept and worthless paper money would not do.

 

So the Communists allowed the reintroduction of hard money with silver rubles equal in intrinsic value to the old familiar Tsarist rubles, but with communist symbols and slogans in place of the image of the Tsar and the Imperial eagle. The gold chervontsy were to be backing for the ruble outside the country. The economy began to revive and when the situation began to stabilize, allowing the Communists to resume consolidation of their power and control, the NEP was ended and all precious metal disappeared from circulation and the forced collectivization was imposed.

 

Resistance to collectivization led to the deliberate creation of a man-made famine in Ukraine, which resulted in mass starvation and death in order to crush that resistance.

[Scottishmoney]

So the Communists allowed the reintroduction of hard money with silver rubles equal in intrinsic value to the old familiar Tsarist rubles, but with communist symbols and slogans in place of the image of the Tsar and the Imperial eagle.  The gold chervontsy were to be backing for the ruble outside the country.  The economy began to revive and when the situation began to stabilize, allowing the Communists to resume consolidation of their power and control, the NEP was ended and all precious metal disappeared from circulation and the forced collectivization was imposed.

 

Resistance to collectivization led to the deliberate creation of a man-made famine in Ukraine, which resulted in mass starvation and death in order to crush that resistance.

 

 

The coincidence of the above, is that the end of the NEP also was the demise of Leon Trotskyi, and the rise of Iosif Stalin. By 1928-29, NEP had largely been superseded with forced collectivization and the beginning of the first of the Five Year Plans. Silver and gold coins were replaced with base metal, or paper as had earlier circulated in the RSFSR.

 

The Chervontsev really never saw a lot of circulation, but only 1000000 of them were minted, and probably many melted into bullion later on, perhaps to pay the USA for war material during WWII. The USSR did not pay much, especially after a ship carrying bullion from Murmansk to the USA was sunk by the Germans.

 

Examples from this coinage can be seen here:RSFSR and USSR Coins

[BKB]

1923 for coins and other stuff was a strange year. One reason perhaps was that the country's name changed that year from RSFSR to SSSR. Thus, you see coins in 1922 with RSFSR and in 1924 they have SSSR on it. That could be one of the reasons why 1923 is almost coinless -- they were trying to come up with a new design for the new coinage of a "new" country. IMXO of course, for I am not a scholar of the USSR period. It was enough to live in that sh*t.

 

As to 1923 10 roubles which is not that common, but very obtainable ($1000 - 1200) -- I remember reading about the 1921 pattern also.

[Scottishmoney]

Politically 1923 was a rough year, it was very near to the end of Lenin's life, and the apparatchikyi were positioning themselves for the eventuality all viewed in the prism.

 

1923 was also the last year that any appreciable White resistance in Siberia was quashed after a protracted effort to control the whole of the country.

[gxseries]

VERY interesting!

 

Knew this is the right place to pour all kinds of questions!