Highly rare silver ruble vintage, printed in light green. Signature of bank director Wentzl. Two-digit series. Seven-digit numbering.
Silver rubles issued for the Bank of Poland are undeniably rare values and sporadically listed on the auction market in Poland and abroad. The high rarity of the entire issue is the result of a controlled and prolonged withdrawal from circulation. The ruble denomination is, in practice, the only representative of this very turbulent period in the history of Polish paper money available today, but within the denomination in question there is an extreme difference in the rarity of individual mintages. It is safe to assume that the vast majority of the available population of the ruble denomination are vintages 47',58' and 66', where only the former is characterized by light green printing.
Therefore, except for the 47' vintage occasionally seen in the auction space, all the others printed in light green are extremely rare bills, some of them even unique.
Analyzing the occurrence of individual vintages, we arrived at only 6 known pieces(!). For more information on the silver ruble population, see our article "How to bite a ruble with silver" - link. Unsurprisingly, this is the only representative of the vintage in question that has been evaluated by PMG.
When describing the relative state of preservation of silver rubles, it is impossible to take into account their rarity, for only in such a context is it possible to properly value a given value.
The auction piece is a banknote in an attractive, definitely above-average state of preservation, especially for a piece in light green printing. The edges are even, the paper cuts are single, only on the left edge we can see a small tear. The paper remains in good condition, with no losses and, most importantly, the colors of the print are very well reproduced. The outline of the dry stamp is still visible(!).
We see no traces of any conservation treatment.
The naturalness of the art on display accounts for its uniqueness.
Collecting silver rubles for vintage is, in our opinion, the most difficult task a collector of Polish paper money can face.
In recent years, silver rubles have completely disappeared from the auction market in Poland and abroad, so today the appearance of any piece is a significant event in the circle of collectors of Polish paper money.
The offered vintage is one of the most difficult to buy, in the presented condition it will be an ornament to any collection.
At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Kingdom of Poland was established, which had wide autonomy until 1831. In 1824, the issuance of cash tickets with denominations of 5, 10, 50 and 100 zlotys was approved. This first money printed on both sides was put into circulation in 1828. In 1831, the Bank of Poland prepared its own tickets with denominations of 5, 50 and 100 zlotys. During the November Uprising, a 1-zloty banknote was issued.
In 1841, unification was made with the monetary system of the Russian Empire and the silver ruble was introduced. The Bank of Poland issued 1, 3, 10 and 25 ruble banknotes until 1866.