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50 Kopek - Baku City Government
| Issuer | Baku City Government (Бакинская Городская Управа) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The central vignette presents the municipal coat of arms of Baku — a shield charged with three flame devices and flanked by oak branches — printed in dark ink over an orange-brown textured ground. Large denomination numerals '50' occupy ornate star-shaped cartouches at left and right of the arms. Two facsimile manuscript signatures below the vignette identify the City Head and a Member of the Board. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is composed entirely as a typographic text panel within a decorative border incorporating floral corner ornaments and a repeating chain motif along the upper edge. The bold central numeral '50' is flanked on each side by the Cyrillic abbreviation 'КОП.', all printed on the same plain orange-brown paper ground. Legal tender and anti-counterfeiting declarations are set in two lines above and one line below the denomination figure. |
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| Comments |
The Baku City Government was one of dozens of local municipal and regional authorities across the former Russian Empire that resorted to issuing their own small-denomination scrip during 1917–1918, as the collapse of central monetary authority left provincial commerce without functioning small change. Kopek-denomination notes of this type were genuine emergency instruments — not symbolic gestures — because metal coinage had essentially vanished from circulation, hoarded or melted down.
Baku in 1918 was in a particularly volatile position: the city changed hands between the Baku Commune, British forces, and Azerbaijani nationalists within a single calendar year. Whether this scrip saw meaningful circulation beyond a narrow window is uncertain.