The Russian Ruble
The Russian ruble (also spelt Rouble), Russia's currency went through many transformations over the years. Its name derives from the Slavic verb rubit (to chop) and in olden times, a ruble was a piece chopped off a silver ingot weighing at a certain weight. A kopek is a ruble having been divided 100 kopeks. Kopeks get their name from the diminutive form for the Russian word kop'yo (meaning spear).
Rubles started out as a unit of weight while kopeks started out as coins being minted in Novgorod. In 1704, the Ruble became a coin for the first time in the run up to the establishment of the Russian Empire. In the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Russian Ruble became the Soviet Ruble but for a while was based on the ruble from the days of the empire. New ruble only came in banknote form until 1921 when silver coins were minted in 5 denominations and in 1923, gold chervonets. When silver became expensive to use (as it needed to be imported), they were replaced with coins made from a type of copper named cupro-nickel and the slogans were changed.
During World War 2, when metal was needed for warfare materials, the coins were made in limited qualities which went on until 1947 when there were enough coin in circulation to meet the economic demand thus easing restrictions. Around that time, to reduce the amount of money in circulation, the Soviet government implemented a confiscatory redenomination of the Ruble currency. While the coins weren't affected, the banknotes were with amounts of 3,000 py6 bank accounts not being revalued.
However, the 1961 redenomination did see the coins being changed and it is this series that is considered the most valuable due to how scarce they are. The reform was done due to the US Dollar undergoing a devaluation from SIUS being 4 old rubles to $1 US being 0.9 new ruble (or 90 kopeks) thus implying a gold parity of 31.5 SUR per troy ounce or 1 SUR being equal to 0.987412 gram of gold.
The Soviet Ruble was withdrawn in 1993 and was replaced with the Russian Ruble which was redenominated with the new code RUB to replace RUR which was exchanged at the rate of 1,000 RUR being equal to 1 RUB.
€1 when converted into Russian Ruble is P83.46 as of g December 2021.
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