Assignation ruble

In 1768, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the Russian Assignation Bank was founded to issue the first official paper currency.

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.

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.