After the proclamation of the Republic of Latvia in 1918, a great variety of different currencies were in circulation: ostrubels, ostmarks, papiermarks, the so-called Tsar rubles, the so-called Duma Money, as well as promissory notes issued by several town municipalities.

[1] Between April 1919 and September 1922, currency notes were issued in denominations of 5, 10, 25, and 50 kopecks and 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 500 rubles.

The first state currency notes were printed in 1919 by Andrievs Niedra's government, which was considered pro-German and illegal, and was overthrown in the same year.

To resolve the problem, on 4 May 1992, the Monetary Reform Commission of the Republic of Latvia passed a resolution "On Introduction of the Latvian ruble".

The second Latvian ruble was withdrawn from circulation on 18 October 1993,[3] but could be exchanged for lats until 1 July 1994, when it lost validity.