100 Roubles

The Armenian Republic government issued this note during one of the most compressed and violent periods of state formation in the twentieth century — the republic existed independently for only about two years before Soviet incorporation in late 1920. Currency production was improvised throughout, with Yerevan operating as both capital and de facto financial center under near-constant military pressure from Ottoman, Azerbaijani, and eventually Red Army forces.

The Government Bank designation here is something of an overstatement for what was functionally a treasury printing operation struggling with severe paper and ink shortages. Condition problems in this series are endemic — paper quality was inconsistent from the outset, not from subsequent handling.