25 Roubles

The Assignation Bank's 25-rouble notes of 1802 belong to a series that had been in continuous issue since 1769, when Catherine II established the bank primarily to reduce the weight burden of copper coinage in everyday commerce. By 1802, the assignat system was already under strain — decades of uncontrolled emission had driven the paper rouble to roughly a third of its silver equivalent, a discount that would only deepen through the Napoleonic wars.

The square format is a deliberate anti-counterfeiting measure introduced under Catherine, each denomination cut to a distinct shape so illiterate users could distinguish values by feel alone.