Assignation ruble (Russian: ассигнационный рубль; assignatsionny rubl) was the first paper currency of Russia. It was used from 1769 until 1849. Assignation ruble had a parallel circulation with the silver ruble; there was an ongoing market exchange rate for these two currencies. In later period, the value of the Assignation ruble was considerably below that of the silver ruble.
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In 1768, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the Assignation Bank was instituted to issue the government paper-money. It opened in St. Petersburg and in Moscow in 1769. Several bank branches were afterwards established in others of the towns, called government towns. Notes of 100, 75, 50, and 25 roubles, were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, which were refunded upon the presentation of those paper notes.
The emergence of Assignation rubles was due to large government spending on military needs, leading to a shortage of silver in the treasury (as all the calculations, especially in foreign trade, were conducted exclusively in silver and gold coins).
The lack of silver, and huge masses of copper coins in the Russian domestic market led to the fact that large payments were extremely difficult to implement. So this has necessitated the introduction of some kind of bills for large transactions.
The initial capital of the Assignation Bank amounted to 1 million rubles copper coins - 500 thousand rubles each in St. Petersburg and in the Moscow offices; thus the total emission of banknotes was also limited to one million rubles.
There were four series of assignation ruble, those of 1769—1785, 1786—1818, 1802, and 1818—1843.
Denominations of 5 and 10 rubles were added in 1787, and 200 ruble in 1819.
With time, the issuance of banknotes kept increasing, and during the second half of 1780s began a sharp depreciation of paper money.
In 1786, Assignation Bank became the "Imperial Assignation Bank", as Moscow and St. Petersburg branches were merged to perform currency exchange operations with foreign states. The former notes were all called in, and exchanged for new ones.
In 1843, all Assignation rubles were withdrawn from circulation, and replaced with the state credit notes (Russian: государственные кредитные билеты) in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles. The Assignation Bank was replaced by the State Bank, and formally ceased operations in 1948. All this came about through the monetary reforms of 1839-43, which improved the Russian fiscal system considerably. These were the reforms of Georg von Cancrin, the Russian Minister of Finance from 1823 to 1844.