
The ruble (
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
) or rouble (
Commonwealth English
The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited from British colonisation, with some exceptions. English serves as the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations.
Many ...
) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the
currency
A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins.
A more general ...
unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
and of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
.
, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the
Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus and the
Russian ruble
''hum''; cv, тенкĕ ''tenke''; kv, шайт ''shayt''; Lak: къуруш ''k'urush''; Mari: теҥге ''tenge''; os, сом ''som''; tt-Cyrl, сум ''sum''; udm, манет ''manet''; sah, солкуобай ''solkuobay''
, name_ab ...
(RUB, ₽) in Russia. Additionally, the
Transnistrian ruble is used in
Transnistria
Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is an unrecognised breakaway state that is internationally recognised as a part of Moldova. Transnistria controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester riv ...
, an unrecognized breakaway province of
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnist ...
. These currencies are subdivided into one hundred
kopeks. No kopek is currently formally subdivided, although
''denga'' (½ kopek) and
''polushka'' (½ denga, thus ¼ kopek) were minted until the 19th century.
Historically, the
grivna
Grivna (гривна) was a currency as well as a measure of weight used in Kievan Rus' and other East Slavic countries since the 11th century.
Name
The word ''grivna'' is derived from from . In Old East Slavic it had the form ''grivĭna ...
, ruble and denga were used in Russia as measurements of weight. In 1704, as a result of monetary reforms by
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
, the ruble became the first
decimal currency. The silver ruble was used until 1897 and the gold ruble was used until 1917. The
Soviet ruble
The ruble or rouble (russian: wikt:рубль, рубль) was the currency of the Soviet Union, introduced in 1922, replacing the Ruble#Russian Empire, Imperial Russian ruble. One ruble was divided into 100 kopecks ( – ''kopeyka'', ''kopeyki'' ...
officially replaced the imperial ruble in 1922 and continued to be used until 1993, when it was formally replaced with the Russian ruble in the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographic ...
and by other currencies in other
post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
.
In the past, several other countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union had currency units that were also named ''ruble'', including the
Armenian ruble,
Latvian ruble and
Tajikistani ruble.
Etymology
Origins
According to one version, the word "ruble" is derived from the Russian verb рубить (''rubit''), "to cut, to chop, to hack", as a ruble was considered a cutout piece of a silver
grivna
Grivna (гривна) was a currency as well as a measure of weight used in Kievan Rus' and other East Slavic countries since the 11th century.
Name
The word ''grivna'' is derived from from . In Old East Slavic it had the form ''grivĭna ...
.
Others say the ruble was never part of a grivna but a synonym for it. This is attested in a 13th-century
birch bark manuscript from
Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the o ...
, where both ruble and grivna referred to ) of silver.
The casting of these pieces included some sort of cutting (the exact technology is unknown), hence the name from рубить (''rubit'').
Another version of the word's origin is that it comes from the Russian noun рубец (''rubets''), the seam that is left around a silver bullions after casting: silver was added to the cast in two steps. Therefore, the word "ruble" means "a cast with a seam".
[Sergey Khalatov]
History of Ruble and Kopek
on "Collectors' Portal UUU.RU" A popular theory deriving the word ruble from
''rupee'' is probably not correct.
The ruble was the Russian equivalent of the
mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* F ...
, a measurement of weight for silver and gold used in medieval Western Europe. The weight of one ''ruble'' was equal to the weight of one ''grivna''.
In Russian, a folk name for ruble, ''tselkovyj'' (целковый, , wholesome), is known, which is a shortening of the целковый рубль ("tselkovyj ruble"), i.e., a wholesome, uncut ruble. This name persists in the
Mordvin word for ruble, ''целковой''.
Since the monetary reform of 1534, one Russian accounting ruble became equivalent to 100 silver Novgorod ''
denga'' coins or smaller 200 Muscovite denga coins or even smaller 400 ''polushka'' coins. Exactly the former coin with a rider on it soon became colloquially known as ''kopek'' and was the higher coin until the beginning of the 18th century. Ruble coins as such did not exist till Peter the Great, when in 1704 he reformed the old monetary system and ordered mintage of a silver ruble coin equivalent to 100 new copper kopek coins. Apart from one ruble and one kopek coins other smaller and greater coins existed as well.
English spelling

Both the spellings ''ruble'' and ''rouble'' are used in English, depending on the author's native dialect. The earliest use recorded in English is the now completely obsolete ''robble''. The form ''rouble'' is preferred by the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' and probably derives from the transliteration into French used among the
Tsarist aristocracy. It may have been retained in English to avoid confusion with "rubble". In general, American, and some Canadian, authors tend to use "ruble" while other English speaking authors use "rouble". In American English there is a tendency for older sources to use ''rouble'' and more recent ones to use ''ruble''. However usage is not consistent and major publications are known to use both (though usually preferring one or the other).
The Russian
plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
s that may be seen on the actual currency are modified according to
Russian grammar. Numbers ending in 1 (except for 11) are followed by
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of ...
singular рубль ''rubl'', копейка ''kopeyka''. Numbers ending in 2, 3 or 4 (except for 12–14) are followed by
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
singular рубля ''rublya'', копейки ''kopeyki''. Numbers ending in 5–9, 0, or 11–14 are followed by genitive plural рублей ''rubley'', копеек ''kopeyek''.
Other languages
In several languages spoken in Russia and the former Soviet Union, the currency name has no etymological relation with ''ruble''. Especially in
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
or languages influenced by them, the ruble is often known (also officially) as ''som'' or ''sum'' (meaning ''pure''), or ''manat'' (from Russian ''moneta'', meaning ''coin''). Soviet banknotes had their value printed in the
languages
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
of all
15 republics of the Soviet Union.
History
Imperial ruble

From the 14th to the 17th centuries the ruble was neither a coin nor a currency but rather a unit of weight. The most used currency was a small silver coin called ''denga'' (pl. ''dengi''). There were two variants of the denga, minted in
Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the o ...
and Moscow. The weight of a denga silver coin was unstable and inflating, but by 1535 one Novgorod denga weighed , the Moscow denga being a half that of the Novgorod denga. Thus one ''account ruble'' consisted of 100 Novgorod or 200 Moscow dengi ( of silver). As the Novgorod denga bore the image of a rider with a spear (russian: копьё, kop’yo), it later has become known as ''kopek''. In the 17th century, the weight of a kopek coin reduced to , thus one ruble was equal to of silver.
[
In 1654–1655 tsar ]Alexis I
Aleksey Mikhaylovich ( rus, Алексе́й Миха́йлович, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ; – ) was the Tsar of Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676. While finding success in foreign affairs, his reign saw several wars ...
tried to carry out a monetary reform and ordered the mintage of silver one ruble coins from imported joachimsthalers and new kopek coins from copper (old silver kopeks were left in circulation). Although around 1 million of such rubles was made, its lower weight (28–32 grams) against the nominal ruble (48 g) led to counterfeiting, speculation and inflation, and after the Copper Riot
The Copper Coin Riot, also known as the Moscow Uprising of 1662 (russian: Медный бунт, Московское восстание 1662 года) was a major riot in Moscow, which took place on .
Background
The riot was preceded by a gradu ...
of 1662 the new monetary system was abandoned in favour of the old one.[
]
Russian Empire
In 1704 Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
finally reformed the old Russian monetary system, minting a silver ruble coin of weight and 72% fineness; hence 20.22 g fine silver. The decision to subdivide it primarily into 100 copper kopeks, rather than 200 Muscovite denga, made the Russian ruble the world's first decimal currency.[
The amount of silver in a ruble varied in the 18th century. Additionally, coins worth over a ruble were minted in gold and ]platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Pla ...
. By the end of the 18th century, the ruble was set to 4 ''zolotnik'' 21 ''dolya'' (or 4 ''zolotnik'', almost exactly equal to 18 grams) of pure silver or 27 ''dolya'' (almost exactly equal to ) of pure gold, with a ratio of 15:1 for the values of the two metals. In 1828, platinum coins were introduced with 1 ruble equal to 77 ''dolya'' (3.451 grams).
On 17 December 1885, a new standard was adopted which did not change the silver ruble but reduced the gold content to 1.161 grams, pegging the gold ruble to the French franc
The franc (, ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It ...
at a rate of 1 ruble = 4 francs. This rate was revised in 1897 to 1 ruble = 2 francs (17.424 ''dolya'' or 0.77424 g fine gold). This ruble was worth about US$0.5145 in 1914.
With the outbreak of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the gold standard
A gold standard is a Backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the ...
peg was dropped and the ruble fell in value, suffering from hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...
in the early 1920s. With the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, the Russian ruble was replaced by the Soviet ruble. The pre-revolutionary Chervonetz was temporarily brought back into circulation from 1922 to 1925.
Russia's coins
By the beginning of the 19th century, copper coins were issued for , , 1, 2 and 5 kopeks, with silver 5, 10, 25 and 50 kopeks and 1 ruble and gold 5 although production of the 10 ruble coin ceased in 1806. Silver 20 kopeks were introduced in 1820, followed by copper 10 kopeks minted between 1830 and 1839, and copper 3 kopeks introduced in 1840. Between 1828 and 1845, platinum 3, 6 and 12 rubles were issued. In 1860, silver 15 kopeks were introduced, due to the use of this denomination (equal to 1 złoty) in Poland, whilst, in 1869, gold 3 rubles were introduced. In 1886, a new gold coinage was introduced consisting of 5 and 10 ruble coins. This was followed by another in 1897. In addition to smaller 5 and 10 ruble coins, and 15 ruble coins were issued for a single year, as these were equal in size to the previous 5 and 10 ruble coins. The gold coinage was suspended in 1911, with the other denominations produced until the First World War.
Constantine ruble
The Constantine ruble
The Constantine ruble is a rare silver coin of the Russian Empire bearing the profile of Constantine, the brother of emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. It was prepared to be manufactured at the Saint Petersburg Mint during the brief Interregn ...
(Russian: , ) is a rare silver coin of the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
bearing the profile of Constantine, the brother of emperors Alexander I Alexander I may refer to:
* Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC
* Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus
* Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome
* Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
and Nicholas I. Its manufacture was being prepared at the Saint Petersburg Mint
Saint Petersburg Mint (russian: Санкт-Петербу́ргский моне́тный двор) is one of the world's largest mints. It was founded by Peter the Great in 1724 on the territory of Peter and Paul Fortress, so it is one of the ...
during the brief Interregnum of 1825, but it was never minted in numbers, and never circulated in public. Its existence became known in 1857 in foreign publications.
Banknotes
=Imperial issues
=
In 1768, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the Assignation Bank was instituted to issue the government paper money. It opened in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and in Moscow in 1769.
In 1769, Assignation rubles were introduced for 25, 50, 75 and 100 rubles, with 5 and 10 rubles added in 1787 and 200 rubles in 1819. The value of the Assignation rubles fell relative to the coins until, in 1839, the relationship was fixed at 1 silver ruble = assignat rubles. In 1840, the State Commercial Bank issued 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 ruble notes, followed by 50 ruble credit notes of the Custody Treasury and State Loan Bank.
In 1843, the Assignation Bank ceased operations, and ''state credit notes'' (Russian: , ) were introduced in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles. In 1859 a paper credit ruble was worth about nine-tenths of a silver ruble[ Jerome Blum, The End of the Old Order in Rural Europe, 1978, p169] These circulated, in various types, until the revolution, with 500 ruble notes added in 1898 and 250 and 1000 ruble notes added in 1917. In 1915, two kinds of small change notes were issued. One, issued by the Treasury, consisted of regular style (if small) notes for 1, 2, 3, 5 and 50 kopeks. The other consisted of the designs of stamps printed onto card with text and the imperial eagle printed on the reverse. These were in denominations of 1, 2, 3, 10, 15 and 20 kopeks.
=Provisional Government issues
=
In 1917, the Provisional Government
A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...
issued treasury notes for 20 and 40 rubles. These notes are known as " Kerenki" or "Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, ; original spelling: ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months from late July to early Novembe ...
rubles". The provisional government also had 25 and 1,000 ruble state credit notes printed in the United States but most were not issued.
Soviet ruble
The Soviet ruble
The ruble or rouble (russian: wikt:рубль, рубль) was the currency of the Soviet Union, introduced in 1922, replacing the Ruble#Russian Empire, Imperial Russian ruble. One ruble was divided into 100 kopecks ( – ''kopeyka'', ''kopeyki'' ...
replaced the ruble of the Russian Empire. The Soviet ruble (code: SUR) was the currency of the Soviet Union between 1917 and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet ruble was issued by the State Bank of the USSR
Gosbank (russian: Госбанк, Государственный банк СССР, ''Gosudarstvenny bank SSSR''—the State Bank of the USSR) was the central bank of the Soviet Union and the only bank in the entire country from 1922 to 1991. ...
. The Soviet ruble continued to be used in the 15 Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
.
The Soviet ruble was used until 1992 in Russia (replaced by Russian ruble
''hum''; cv, тенкĕ ''tenke''; kv, шайт ''shayt''; Lak: къуруш ''k'urush''; Mari: теҥге ''tenge''; os, сом ''som''; tt-Cyrl, сум ''sum''; udm, манет ''manet''; sah, солкуобай ''solkuobay''
, name_ab ...
), Ukraine (replaced by Ukrainian karbovanets), Estonia (replaced by Estonian kroon), Latvia (replaced by Latvian rouble), Lithuania (replaced by Lithuanian talonas), and until 1993 in Belarus (replaced by Belarusian ruble), Georgia (replaced by Georgian lari), Armenia (replaced by Armenian dram), Kazakhstan (replaced by Kazakhstani tenge), Kyrgyzstan (replaced by Kyrgyzstani som), Moldova (replaced by Moldovan cupon), Turkmenistan (replaced by Turkmenistani manat
The manat ( tk, manat; abbreviation: m; code: TMT) is the currency of Turkmenistan. The original manat was introduced on 1 November 1993, replacing the rouble at a rate of 1 manat = Rbls 500. The manat is subdivided into 100 ''tenge'' ( t ...
), Uzbekistan (replaced by Uzbekistani soum
The sum (; uz, soʻm in Latin script, сўм in Cyrillic script, سوم in Arabic script; ISO code: UZS) is the official currency of Uzbekistan.
Etymology
The official name of the Soviet currency in Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek was '' ...
), and until 1994 in Azerbaijan (replaced by Azerbaijani manat
The manat ( ISO code: AZN; sign: ₼; abbreviation: m) is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 '' gapiks''.
The first iteration of the currency happened in the times of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and its successor, the Az ...
) and until 1995 in Tajikistan (replaced by Tajikistani ruble).
Symbol
The Ruble sign “₽” is a currency sign
A currency symbol or currency sign is a graphic symbol used to denote a currency unit. Usually it is defined by the monetary authority, like the national central bank for the currency concerned.
In formatting, the symbol can use various format ...
used to represent the monetary unit of account in Russia. It features a Cyrillic letter Р (transliterated as "Er" in the Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
) with an additional horizontal stroke.
Notes
See also
* Ruble (disambiguation) for a more comprehensive directory of past and present currencies called ruble or rouble.
References
External links
*
{{Ruble
Modern obsolete currencies
Denominations (currency)
Currencies of Russia
Numismatics