Russian ruble
The ruble or rouble is the official currency of Russia. Banknotes and coins are issued by the Central Bank of Russia, which is Russia's monetary authority independent of all other government bodies.
The ruble is the second-oldest currency in continuous use, after pound sterling, as well as the first decimal currency. The ruble was the currency of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, where it was known as the Soviet ruble. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet ruble was replaced in Russia with the Russian ruble at par in the following year. The Russian ruble continued to be used in 11 post-Soviet states, forming a "ruble zone" until 1993. In 1998, the ruble was redenominated shortly before the 1998 financial crisis, at a rate of 1000 RUR = 1 RUB.
The ruble is a free-floating currency and is subdivided into 100 kopecks which have fallen out of use due to inflation. In 2023, the digital ruble was introduced. The Russian ruble is also used as a de facto legal tender in Baikonur, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
History
Overview
The ruble has been used in Russian territories since the 14th century, and is the second-oldest currency still in circulation, behind sterling. Historically, the grivna, ruble and denga were used across Russian territories as measurements of weight. As a result of monetary reforms by Peter the Great, the ruble was minted in Russia as a circulating coin in 1704, shortly before the establishment of the Russian Empire. It was also the first currency in Europe to be decimalised in 1704, when it was divided into 100 kopecks. The silver ruble was used until 1897, and the gold ruble was used until 1917.The Soviet ruble officially replaced the imperial ruble in 1922 and continued to be used until 1993, when it was formally replaced with the Russian ruble in the Russian Federation and by other currencies in other post-Soviet states. The ruble has seen several incarnations and redenominations during its history, the latest of which is the introduction in 1998 of the current Russian ruble at the rate of 1 RUB = 1,000 RUR.
Etymology
According to one version, the word "ruble" is derived from the Russian verb рубить, "to cut, to chop, to hack", as a ruble was considered a cutout piece of a silver grivna. According to Ivan Kondratyev:Others say the ruble was never part of a grivna but a synonym for it. This is attested in a 13th-century birch bark manuscript from Novgorod, where both ruble and grivna referred to of silver. The casting of these pieces included some sort of cutting, hence the name from рубить. Another version of the word's origin is that it comes from the Russian noun рубец, the seam that is left around a silver bullions after casting: silver was added to the cast in two steps. Therefore, the word "ruble" means "a cast with a seam". A popular theory deriving the word ruble from rupee is probably not correct.
The ruble was the Russian equivalent of the mark, a measurement of weight for silver and gold used in medieval Western Europe. The weight of one ruble was equal to the weight of one grivna. Since the monetary reform of 1534, one Russian accounting ruble became equivalent to 100 silver Novgorod denga coins or smaller 200 Moscow denga coins or even smaller 400 polushka coins. Exactly the former coin with a rider on it soon became colloquially known as kopecks and was the higher coin until the beginning of the 18th century. Silver ruble coins entered circulation in 1654 but it was not until during the reign of Peter the Great did Russia completely shift to domestically minted silver ruble coins. In 1704, he reformed the old monetary system and ordered mintage of a silver ruble coin equivalent to 100 new copper kopeck coins. Apart from one ruble and one kopeck coins, other smaller and greater coins existed as well.
Both the spellings ruble and rouble are used in English, depending on the author's native dialect. The earliest use recorded in English is the now completely obsolete robble. The form rouble is preferred by the Oxford English Dictionary and probably derives from the transliteration into French used among the Tsarist aristocracy. It may have been retained in English to avoid confusion with "rubble". In general, American, and some Canadian, authors tend to use "ruble" while other English-speaking authors use "rouble". In American English there is a tendency for older sources to use rouble and more recent ones to use ruble. However, usage is not consistent and major publications are known to use both.
The Russian plurals that may be seen on the actual currency are modified according to Russian grammar. Numbers ending in 1 are followed by nominative singular рубль rubl, копейка kopeyka. Numbers ending in 2, 3 or 4 are followed by genitive singular рубля rublya, копейки kopeyki. Numbers ending in 5–9, 0, or 11–14 are followed by genitive plural рублей rubley, копеек kopeyek.
In several languages spoken in Russia and the former Soviet Union, the currency name has no etymological relation with ruble. Especially in Turkic languages or languages influenced by them, the ruble is often known as som or sum, or manat. Soviet ruble banknotes had their value printed in the languages of all 15 republics of the Soviet Union.
Early history
The coinage system in medieval Russia was connected to a system of weights. The grivna was used in Russia as the basic monetary unit, but during the 14th and 15th centuries, it was replaced by the ruble as the primary accounting unit. The first chronicle mention of the ruble as an accounting unit is found under the year 1316. In the second half of the 14th century, Dmitry Donskoy issued the ruble and a smaller coin known as the denga. The relative value of the ruble differed between regions in the country. In the Sudebnik of 1497, the ruble was equal to 200 dengi and the altyn was equal to 6 dengi.There were two variants of the denga, minted in Novgorod and Moscow. The weight of a denga silver coin was unstable and inflating, but by 1535, following the monetary reform of Elena Glinskaya, one Novgorod denga weighed, the Moscow denga being a half that of the Novgorod denga. Thus, one accounting ruble consisted of 100 Novgorod or 200 Moscow dengi. As the Novgorod denga bore the image of a rider with a spear, it later has become known as the kopeck. In the 17th century, the weight of a kopeck coin reduced to, thus one ruble was equal to of silver.
In 1654–1655, Tsar Alexis of Russia carried out a monetary reform and ordered the mintage of silver one ruble coins from imported joachimsthalers and new kopeck coins from copper. Although around a million of such rubles was made, its lower weight against the nominal ruble led to counterfeiting, speculation and inflation, and after the Copper Riot of 1662, the new monetary system was abandoned in favour of the old one.
Imperial ruble (1704–1922)
In 1704, Peter the Great finally reformed the old Russian monetary system, minting a silver ruble coin of weight and 72% fineness; hence 20.22 g fine silver. The decision to subdivide it primarily into 100 copper kopecks, rather than 200 Moscow denga, made the Russian ruble the world's first decimal currency.The amount of silver in a ruble varied in the 18th century. Additionally, coins worth over a ruble were minted in gold and platinum. By the end of the 18th century, the ruble was set to 4 zolotnik 21 dolya of pure silver or 27 dolya of pure gold, with a ratio of 15:1 for the values of the two metals. In 1828, platinum coins were introduced with 1 ruble equal to 77 dolya.
On 17 December 1885, a new standard was adopted which did not change the silver ruble but reduced the gold content to 1.161 grams, pegging the gold ruble to the French franc at a rate of 1 ruble = 4 francs. This rate was revised in 1897 to 1 ruble = 2 francs. This ruble was worth about US$0.5145 in 1914.
With the outbreak of World War I, the gold standard peg was dropped and the ruble fell in value, suffering from hyperinflation in the early 1920s. With the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, the Russian ruble was replaced by the Soviet ruble. The pre-revolutionary Chervonetz was temporarily brought back into circulation from 1922 to 1925.
Imperial ruble coins
By the beginning of the 19th century, copper coins were issued for,, 1, 2 and 5 kopecks, with silver 5, 10, 25 and 50 kopecks and 1 ruble and gold 5, although production of the 10 ruble coin ceased in 1806. Silver 20 kopecks were introduced in 1820, followed by copper 10 kopecks minted between 1830 and 1839, and copper 3 kopecks introduced in 1840. Between 1828 and 1845, platinum 3, 6 and 12 rubles were issued. In 1860, silver 15 kopecks were introduced, due to the use of this denomination in Poland, whilst, in 1869, gold 3 rubles were introduced.In 1886, a new gold coinage was introduced consisting of 5 and 10 ruble coins. This was followed by another, in 1897. In addition to smaller 5 and 10 ruble coins, and 15 ruble coins were issued for a single year, as these were equal in size to the previous 5 and 10 ruble coins. The gold coinage was suspended in 1911, with the other denominations produced until the First World War.
The Constantine ruble is a rare silver coin of the Russian Empire bearing the profile of Constantine, the brother of emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. Its manufacture was being prepared at the Saint Petersburg Mint during the brief Interregnum of 1825, but it was never minted in numbers, and never circulated in public. Its existence became known in 1857 in foreign publications.
Imperial ruble banknotes
In 1768, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the Russian Assignation Bank was instituted to issue the government paper money. It opened in Saint Petersburg and in Moscow in 1769.In 1769, Assignation rubles were introduced for 25, 50, 75 and 100 rubles, with 5 and 10 rubles added in 1787 and 200 rubles in 1819. The value of the Assignation rubles fell relative to the coins until, in 1839, the relationship was fixed at 1 silver ruble = assignat rubles. In 1840, the State Commercial Bank issued 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 ruble notes, followed by 50 ruble credit notes of the Custody Treasury and State Loan Bank.
In 1843, the Assignation Bank ceased operations, and state credit notes were introduced in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles. In 1859 a paper credit ruble was worth about nine-tenths of a silver ruble. These circulated, in various types, until the revolution, with 500 ruble notes added in 1898 and 250 and 1,000 ruble notes added in 1917. In 1915, two kinds of small change notes were issued. One, issued by the Treasury, consisted of regular style notes for 1, 2, 3, 5 and 50 kopecks. The other consisted of the designs of stamps printed onto card with text and the imperial eagle printed on the reverse. These were in denominations of 1, 2, 3, 10, 15 and 20 kopecks.
In 1917, the Provisional Government issued treasury notes for 20 and 40 rubles. These notes are known as "Kerenki" or "Kerensky rubles". The provisional government also had 25 and 1,000 ruble state credit notes printed in the United States but most were not issued.