5 RUB #465

Front

State Treasury Note of 5 rubles issued by the State Bank of the USSR during the 1961 currency reform. This reform denominated the Soviet ruble at a 10:1 ratio, replacing the 1947 series notes. The front features an ornate multicoloured guilloche design with the denomination '5' in decorative frames at left and right corners, and text in Russian stating 'ПЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ' (Five Rubles) at center. Below the main denomination text is a multilingual declaration in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Georgian, Azerbaijani, Lithuanian, Moldavian, Latvian, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Armenian, Turkmen, and Estonian stating 'Counterfeiting of state treasury notes is punishable by law.' Serial number ШВ 9789923 appears at bottom.

Back

Double-headed eagle emblem of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) at center, featuring a two-headed eagle with wings spread, positioned within an ornate guilloche rosette. The denomination appears four times: 'РУБЛЕЙ' (rubles) at top left and right, with stylized '5' numerals in decorative frames at left and right center, and 'РУБЛЕЙ' repeated at bottom left and right. The inscription 'ПОДДЕЛКА КРЕДИТНЫХ БИЛЕТОВ ПРЕСЛЕДУЕТСЯ ПО ЗАКОНУ' (Counterfeiting of credit notes is punishable by law) appears at center bottom. The RSFSR eagle was used on Soviet banknotes of this series to represent one of the constituent republics.

History

This note belongs to the 1961 State Treasury Notes series (Государственные казначейские билеты), issued following Khrushchev's currency reform of January 1, 1961. The reform redenominated the Soviet ruble at 10 old rubles = 1 new ruble, with the stated goal of simplifying accounting and eliminating large-denomination notes from circulation. The 1961 series remained in use throughout the remainder of the Soviet period until demonetization in 1991 after the collapse of the USSR. These notes were issued alongside State Bank Notes (credit rubles) of the same design family. The multilingual text reflects the multinational character of the Soviet Union, with denominations printed in all 15 official languages of the union republics. Pick number P-224. The serial number prefix 'ШВ' corresponds to a documented print block. No specific issue year can be determined from the serial number alone for this series, as Goznak used block prefixes rather than year encoding. The 1961 series was printed continuously from 1961 through the late 1980s with the same basic design.