20 Karbovantsiv

The Kyivska Notna Fabryka — literally the Kyiv Music Note Factory — was a sheet music printing plant pressed into banknote production as the Soviet Union's central currency supply collapsed. These karbovanets coupons were never intended as a real currency; they were rationing instruments, introduced to prevent residents of other republics from buying up consumer goods in Ukrainian stores as the ruble lost credibility. The irony that a music printer was producing a nation's circulating medium was not lost on contemporaries.

The "b" suffix in Pick 68b distinguishes a paper stock variation — the series ran across multiple printings as demand outstripped the factory's original capacity.