With Skaryna and Pahonia. See What Unique Never Used Belarusian Money Look Like

A lot with Belarusian banknotes issued in 1993 has appeared at the American auction site stacksbowers.com. The starting price of 6 banknotes is set at $ 6,000.


The banknotes in question have very curious fate. They were created in Germany but never got to issued status. It is believed that the country paid 10 million old rubles for over 400 thousand tons of the new money.

At that time, Belarusians were using banknotes with animals, nicknamed “zaichikis” for the image of the running European hare at 1 ruble note, that were considered temporary.

In mid 1993s the local media were actively reporting about the new money having been brought to the Central Bank’s deposits. The fact was confirmed in September 1994 by the then chairman of the Bank’s board Stanislav Bogdanovich. He said that it was unknown when the new money would be put into circulation.

While the authorities were waiting for stable inflation, the country changed its state symbols, so the new banknotes did not match anymore.

Rumor had it all the banknotes were destroyed. However, as it become obvious now, some of them had survived. The images went public, though no buyer has appeared yet.

The 1 Ruble has Kamenets Tower while on the greenish 5 Ruble is Saint Euphrosyne Church in Polotsk.


The larger denominations of the set features prominent Belarusians. The 10 Rubles has Writer Yakub Kolas, the 20 Ruble has a portrait of Poet Yanka Kupala. unknown_money_belarus-00006unknown_money_belarus-00014 The 50 Ruble features poet and literary critic Maxim Bogdanovich.

The largest denomination in 100 Rubles features the image of physician, translator and book printer, Francysk Skaryna.