assignation ruble

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In 1768, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the Russian Assignation Bank was founded to issue the first official paper currency. It opened branches in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1769. Several bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government towns. Notes of the denominations 100, 75, 50, and 25 rubles were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, which were refunded upon the presentation of those paper notes.

The emergence of Assignation rubles was due to large government spending on military matters, leading to a shortage of silver in the treasury, as all financial calculations, especially in foreign trade, were conducted exclusively in silver and gold coins. This lack of silver, and the huge masses of copper coins in circulation in the Russian domestic market, led to large payments becoming extremely difficult to implement, necessitating the introduction of some form of paper currency for large transactions.

The initial circulation of the Assignation Bank amounted to one million rubles worth of copper coins, with 500 thousand rubles each in the St. Petersburg and Moscow offices; thus the total emission of banknotes was also limited to one million rubles.

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Between 1769 and 1843 five issuances of the Assignation ruble were carried out. Virtually all (except some denominations of the 1802 issue) were issued across a number of years. One issue (1785–87) was known to have two separate series.

Image:Sankt Petersburg Banken Brücke 2006 b.jpg in the foreground]]

In 1843, all Assignation rubles were withdrawn from circulation and replaced with the new state credit notes (Russian: государственные кредитные билеты) in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles. The Assignation Bank was replaced by the State Bank, and formally ceased operations in 1848. This was part of the monetary reforms of 1839–43, which improved the Russian fiscal system considerably. These reforms were driven by Georg von Cancrin, the Russian Minister of Finance from 1823 to 1844.

{{Portal|Money|Numismatics}}

• Russian ruble
• State Bank of the Russian Empire

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last1=Cuhaj|first1=George S.|year=2010|title=Paper Money General Issues 1368-1960|publisher=Krause Publications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BuNA39dnuHsC|edition=13|isbn=978-1-4402-1293-2}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [https://www.academia.edu/43977659/1999_RNS_Assignats_1802_03 Shishanov V. The Assignats of 1802-1803 // Journal of the Russian numismatic society. 1999. №68. P.58-69.]

• [http://opengroup.info/sd/currency.htm History of Russian Currency]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [http://www.encspb.ru/en/article.php?kod=2804000929 Assignation Bank:] Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg

Category:Economy of the Russian Empire

Category:Currencies of Russia