Could anyone identify this paper bill?

[34thdivision]

I received this bill from a veteran who carried it in his billfold during WW 11. I don"t know what country it is from? Thanks.

[Nidhøggr]

Its from Russia I guess

[randy@treadways]

According to my wife [who grew up in the USSR in Latvia] it's a Soviet 3 ruble note from 1938. It would have still been valid during the second world war, and was probably traded to an American GI for a similar value American note (although GI's often carried scrip instead of dollar bills).

She noted of additional interest is that the Soviets always printed the value in all USSR languages on the back- which in her experience was always 15 translations. But as you can see on the back of this one there are only 10. That's because the Soviets had not yet grabbed the Baltic countries- that didn't happen until 1940-- and notes that included those additional languages might not have been printed until after the war ended [not sure about that].

In any case, it stands to reason that a Russian soldier could have been carrying this in 1945 and traded it to an American GI, who brought it home with him.

By the way, the date 1938 doesn't necessarily mean that's the year it was printed. In 1938 Russia went off the gold standard, so new notes printed after that date carry the year 1938 and removed the word 'Gold' from 'Gold Rubles' to become simply 'Rubles'. Notes printed throughout the war years still carried the year 1938 because that's when the new currency standard was put into place. It remained that way until 1947.

[woodie]

Source: http://worldmoneymax.com/?/item-74/
Fourth ruble

In 1924, state currency notes were introduced for 1, 3 and 5 gold rubles (рубль золотом). These circulated alongside the chervonets notes introduced in 1922 by the State Bank in denominations of 1, 3, 5 10 and 25 chervonets. State Treasury notes replaced the state currency notes after 1928. In 1938, new notes were issued for 1, 3 and 5 rubles, dropping the word "gold".