Gold Ruble

a standard Russian monetary unit that contained 17.424 doll (0.774235 g; 1 dolia = 0.044435 g) of pure gold, according to the tsarist government law of Jan. 3, 1897, on the introduction of gold monometallism. Gold coins were minted and put into circulation in denominations of five rubles, ten rubles, 15 rubles (imperial), and seven rubles 50 kopeks (half-imperial). The gold ruble was a stable monetary unit within the country and abroad. The bank note issue was almost completely covered by the gold reserves of Gosbank (State Bank). The rate of exchange in relation to foreign currencies fluctuated within the narrow limits of the gold points. Bank notes issued by the Gosbank of Russia ceased to be redeemed in gold at the beginning of World War I in 1914 and the bank notes in rubles became paper money.

In 1921–22, as the result of rapid devaluation of Soviet paper money and the need for a stable monetary unit for commodity turnover, the use of the prerevolutionary gold rubles as a means of accounting was allowed. The rate for computing gold rubles into Soviet paper money was set on Dec. 15, 1921, by the People’s Commissariat for Finance; on Apr. 1, 1922, it was set by the Gosbank of the RSFSR and on Aug. 25, 1922, by a special cost commission that consisted of the representatives of People’s Commissariat for Finance, Gosbank, and the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade. After the issue of bank notes in chervontsi by Gosbank following the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR of Oct. 11, 1922, there was no further need to use gold rubles for accounting purposes.