Why did the USSR have two sources of currency?

Question

An inscription on the 1, 3, and 5 rubles notes says that it is a State Treasury Note (Государственный Казначейский Билет), and that it is guaranteed by the entire property of the Union of SSR (обеспечивается всем достоянием Союза ССР).

On the other hand, the inscription on the 10, 25, 50, and 100 rubles notes says that it is a State Bank Note (Билет Государственного Банка), and that it is guaranteed by gold, precious metals, and by other assets of the State Bank (обеспечивается золотом, драгоценными металлами и прочими активами Государственного Банка).

Just in case, here are the images of the notes.

There were absolutely no difference in their circulation.

What was the rationale of having two independent sources of currency?

Answer 1

In 1922, the Soviet economy was suffering from high inflation and the government introduced a new gold-backed currency called Chervonets which was equivalent of the old Russian imperial gold coin of 10 roubles. Initially, chervonets was exchanged for 11,400 roubles. As the roubles and chervonets were both in circulation, every day, the State Bank published exchange rate between roubles and chervonets.

The same year, the State Bank started issuing banknotes denominated in chervonets which had inscription that 1 chervonets is equivalent of 7,74234 grams of gold. Chervonets was freely convertible and was traded on foreign exchanges.

By the end of 1923, chervonets mostly replaced old Soviet roubles and comprised 80% of the money supply. In 1924, the Soviet government started also issuing State Treasury Notes in denominates of 1,3 and 5 gold roubles (1 chervonets equals 10 gold roubles) but they weren't gold-backed. In 1925, the rouble was pegged to the chervonets with the same rate of 1 chervonets to 10 roubles.

With the end of New Economic Policy, increasing money supply, introduction of price controls, chervonets started losing its convertibility and in 1930 stopped being traded on foreign exchanges. In 1937, new banknotes for 1,3,5,10 chervonets had new inscription which didn't mention its gold equivalent but still stated that they are "guaranteed by gold, precious metals, and by other assets of the State Bank". In 1947, the State Bank issued new banknotes in denominations of 10,25,50 and 100 roubles. The dominations of 1,3 and 5 roubles were still issued as Treasury notes. The last Soviet banknotes were issued in 1961 with the same distinction between "State Bank Note" for denominations of 10,25,50 and 100 roubles and "State Treasury Note" for denominations of 1,3 and 5 roubles but with no real distinction in practice.

Answer 2

Your State Treasury Note is similar to the German Rentenmark, which was based on mortgaged public property up to a sum of 3.2 Billion Goldmarks.

The State Bank Note was similar to the German Reichsmark, which was, theoretically, pegged to gold/US dollar.

In theory an inflation of the Reichsmark would not effect the value of the Rentenmark, since the value of the property (in Reichsmark) would automatically rise with the inflation.

The theory also assumes that the population trusts the issuing authority not to print more banknotes than the value of the mortgaged property.

The reason to retain both was the hope that the population would remain confident in the value of the State Treasury Note (Rentenmark), even if the value of the State Bank Note (Reichsmark) radically lost value.

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The Soviet Rubel, togeather with the currencies of all the other Socialist countries at that time, were non-convertable currencies. They were only intended for internal usage.

Answer 3

In the Soviet Union, the idea was to make socialist distribution of income look more equal than it actually was. The mechanism was to create rubles of different value and pay different classes of people in different kinds of rubles.

Rubles that were tied to "hard currency" such as dollars or gold, held their value better than "Soviet" rubles that were tied to the economy of the Soviet Union. As noted in a book called "Klass", at times, the value of a "certificate" (hard currency) ruble might approximate one dollar, while it cost twenty "Soviet" rubles to buy one dollar on the black market. So the "official" exchange rate (of hard rubles) might be 1 to 1, while the "real" rate (of Soviet rubles) would be 20 to 1.

A laborer might earn 500 rubles a month while a senior party member earned 1000 rubles a month. On paper, that's a two to one ratio in favor of the party member, in line with "socialist" principles.

Except that the laborer was paid in "Soviet" rubles in worth 5 cents on the dollar, or $25 a month, while the party member was paid in "dollar" rubles worth 100 cents on the dollar, or $1000 a month. Then the party member would, in fact, earn 40 times as much as the laborer, a ratio more in line with capitalist principles.

Answer 4

The USSR had a continuous complex capitalist market throughout its history. (War communism was RSFSR.). This market mediated relations between various enterprises. In particular the finance and capital banks mobilised state and firm investments.

The obvious rationale behind high value notes being firm guaranteed and low value notes being state guaranteed is to allow mediating institutions (banks) to be able to fail liquidating outstanding credit notes values. In contrast low value notes are state guaranteed. This ensures that in a bank run crisis within the Soviet Union the state places a greater risk on workers and speculators and petits bourgeois and the few private bourgeois. In contrast in an inflationary crisis the state is insulated from issuing new notes as its notes rapidly become worthless.

Yes, large scale investment was centrally planned as were major markets, but these and the consumer market were mediated by market relations.