Why are good-condition Russian notes easy to find?

[Rhino]

Imperial Russian notes, especially ones from 1898 to 1912, are pretty easy to find in extra fine condition to close to uncirculated. But why is that? For notes that are over a hundred years old, how can that be possible? I mean if you try to find Us currency from the early 1900s in that condition, you'll have to look really hard and spend a lot of $$$... Is it a scarcity issue? Were there just so many Russian notes printed that there's many left over that weren't used? Or is it an economic issue, where the people were too poor to even keep a 5 or 10 Rouble note from 1909?

 

I thought about this for the first time when I compared my collection with a friend who collects only American currency... his notes were in a drastically different shape than mine, even though they were all from roughly the same era.

 

Opinions?

[Saor Alba]

The Russian revolution and subsequent Civil War brought about an inflation that destroyed the value of the ruble. For that reason during the inflationary period the ruble notes were printed like toilet paper to further fuel the inflation. The ruble went through 4-5 revaluations, exchanges for new rubles until the final call in 1923-4. So it is possible to obtain a lot of early Soviet Russian and USSR paper money similarly- though there are some rarities.

 

The Provisional Government, then later the RSFSR government printed the Tsarist era currency well into 1918 and maybe later. Because it had lost so much of it's value it often never got circulated and sat in bundles. It was possible 20 years ago to easily purchase whole bundles of the 500 ruble notes because they were so common.

 

As such it really stunk for people living in Russia and the republics that would later make up the USSR, but for us now it afforded us the opportunity to collect some of the loveliest paper money ever printed:

 

 

 

 

[ccg]

Saor Alba pretty much nailed it.

 

In general, any redeemable / exchangeable currency will be traded in, so banknotes from places with a good history of redeeming/exchanging old notes generally are worth a lot more.

 

Notes that became worthless and irredeemable end up being available for long afterwards, as people typically don't throw money out, even if it is technically of no value as currency.

 

And of course, any time there's lots of currency changes, there's the possibility for remainder notes to exist in large numbers.

[boydle]

American notes seem to be more expensive that other countries as well due to the large amount of American Note collectors, this has been my experiance so far.

[Saor Alba]

In contrast places where the currency retained value, the paper money most often ended up being redeemed and taken out of circulation and destroyed. I collect Scottish and Irish banknotes, and 19th century and early 20th century notes are very difficult to find in any condition.

 

Some countries that will have seen early currency disappear because it didn't lose value quickly:

 

Great Britain

Ireland

Switzerland

Sweden

Denmark

Canada

USA

Mexico - prior to 1920 issued notes.

 

Some of the Swiss and Swedish notes are now demonetized 25 years after they were last circulated, so they have no legal worth, but because they are now scarce because of the redemption the prices are fairly commensurate with current notes.

[ccg]

The British were quite good at honouring their notes, not just from home, but also abroad in the colonies and dominions. Even notes from odd places like Britsh West Africa and British Honduras (Belize) are still technically redeemable. To be best of my knowledge all government issued Canadian, S. African, Australian, and NZ notes are valid or exchangeable.

[Rhino]

Thanks for all the insight guys! Very much appreciated!

[Saor Alba]

The British were quite good at honouring their notes, not just from home, but also abroad in the colonies and dominions. Even notes from odd places like Britsh West Africa and British Honduras (Belize) are still technically redeemable. To be best of my knowledge all government issued Canadian, S. African, Australian, and NZ notes are valid or exchangeable.

 

 

In Canada all notes issued after 1894, including the Charter bank notes issued up until 1943, are redeemable.