Chervonets
[2][3] Since the beginning of the 20th century, banknotes were often referred to as chervonets with the value of ten units (for example, rubles, hryvnia, euro, etc.).
A small percentage of gold coins were issued in denominations of one chervonets with a picture of a peasant on the front and a coat of arms of the RSFSR on the back.
(Chervontsy is the plural of chervonets) In 1252, Florence, Italy issued a gold coin of 3.537 grams, which was soon called the florin.
[4][5] Beginning with Ivan III until Peter the Great, gold coins that were minted were known as chervontsy or chervony, but they were used mainly as award medals.
Chervonsty are also called gold coins with a 3-ruble denomination, .917 tests and weighing 3.93 grams., Consent of their release was received by the State Council from Alexander II on February 11, 1869.
These ducats were taken out of circulation in Holland in 1849 (this is the last date on the Russian copies), and in Russia they ceased to be minted in 1868 after the protest of the Dutch government.
This name entrenched itself because the chervonets began to be called the base monetary unit first in the RSFSR, and then the USSR, it was equivalent to 10 Soviet rubles and like the tsarist ten-ruble coin, contained 7.74235 g of gold.
Currencies in circulation included tsarist credit tickets, Duma money, "kerenki", securities and sovznaki (Russian: совзнаки), which did not enjoy the confidence of the population.
In October of the same year, the State Bank of the RSFSR was granted the right to issue banknotes in gold, with a value of 1⁄2, 1, 2, 5, 10, 25 and 50 chervonets.
This money was completely backed by the state with reserves of precious metals and foreign currency, goods and bills of reliable enterprises.
Already before their release, the pre-revolutionary gold ruble became the basis for financial calculations in the RSFSR, and in 1922 it was legalized as a payment instrument.
On banknotes it was recorded that 1 chervonets contained 1 spool and 78.24 shares (7.74 grams) of pure gold, and that "the beginning of the exchange is established by a special governmental act".
At the same time, peasants believed that it was unprofitable to sell their goods for sovznaky, and this led to an increase in the prices of agricultural products and a reduction in their supply to the city.
The artist of the drawing was the chief medalist of the Petrograd mint, A. F. Vasyutinskiy (who also designed the 1934 version of the medal of the Order of Lenin and the first badge of the Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR program (Russian: Готов к труду и обороне СССР).
The solution was found instantly – the Soviet Mint began issuing a gold chervonts sample of Nicholas II, which received unconditional acceptance abroad.
The non-use of the metal chervonets was explained by the fact that the financial system of the country was sufficiently strong enough to give up free circulation of gold.
From 1975 to 1982, the State Bank of the USSR issued the 1923 model of the chervonets coin with the emblem of the RSFSR and new dates, there were a total of 7,350,000 copies in circulation.
By the decision of the Central Bank in 2001 they were made a legal tender in the territory of the Russian Federation together with a silver coin with a nominal value of 3 rubles known as a "Sable".
Before the reign of Peter I, the name chervonets was applied to various foreign gold coins in circulation in Russia, mostly Dutch ducats and Venetian sequins.
Unlike the gold coins minted in Russia from the 15th to the 17th centuries, which were used as awards only, the chervonets of Peter I took their place in the monetary system and were used in foreign trade.
Chervontsy were minted until 1757, when they were displaced by the golden ruble (with a lower alloy) and by counterfeits of the Dutch ducat, which by then met the demand for trade in gold coins.
[20] Meanwhile, the authorities introduced a parallel currency, called the chervonets, which was fully convertible and backed by the gold standard.
These coins contained 8.6 g of .900 alloy, and fetched a high rate on the foreign stock exchanges, allowing the financing of the Soviet Union's New Economic Policy.
There is widespread misconception about the 1925 issue: all English sources copy each other and say that only one gold chervonets from 1925 survived, but this is not entirely true (see on locations below).
At an auction in April 2008 in Moscow, a single surviving production sample copper chervonets from 1925 with slightly modified design from 1923 appeared.
To obtain much-needed foreign currency, the Soviet Government decided to strike 10 ruble coins in the pre-revolutionary design, bearing the portrait of the murdered Tsar Nicholas II.
Six hundred thousand gold 10 ruble coins were struck in 1925 from the old dies which had survived the 1917 Revolution and the subsequent civil war.
This resulted in the increased use of bullion bars and rendered it pointless to mint precious metal coins for international payments.
In 2001 the late-Soviet gold chervonets was granted the status of a legal tender by the Central Bank and turned into an official investment coin.
The reason for this is sanctions levied on Russia from within Europe and the UK, which forced banks to prevent bank transfers which has any reference to 'Russia' or Russian products regardless of where the seller was based which led to difficulties importing gold chervonet coins into the UK and other European countries during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
