At the beginning of the First World War, the Russian Empire held the world’s largest gold reserves with an estimated value of 1.695 billion rubles. However, the gold holdings were significantly run down by the war. For the first time in a long period, Russia had to print money that was not backed by gold. A steep increase in the supply of unbacked money resulted in hyperinflation. By 1917, the prices had increased by 3.36 times on average.

This means that the limited series of small change notes was only valid at the Tambov Gunpowder Factory and could only be used by the factory’s employees. They received salary in such notes and could use them to pay for goods instead of regular cash.

At the bottom of the banknote, there are places for two signatures and the names of signatories: ‘Chairman of the Board of the Consumer Society (V. Ruban) Member of the Board of the Consumer Society (Y. Milashevsky)’.

The factory put its own notes in circulation between 1915 and 1920. This idea was initiated by the factory’s management and supported by engineers and economists.

The factory’s shops operated according to the team contracting system: works were performed not by an employee, but a team supervised by a foreman. The payment was also made on a team basis — the income was allocated between the team members according to the amount of work performed by each of them. Factory change notes were introduced to simplify this process. A factory would prepare a draft which was later used by the factory’s typography to print banknotes.