So, this is me toning down descriptions for my banknotes. I'm not sure why this is such a source of angst for me but I have to believe at the core of it is my desire to produce something that's halfway legible, informative and enjoyable, not just content for the sake of it and my distain of a word limit. Meh, well the only way I'm going to know is if I throw some of it out there for critiquing to the PMG Journal audience, all four of you.
I'm working on a basic structure, well not really, it's the same structure I've had from the beginning but I like it I want to see if it works for all my notes. Below is what I'm thinking for the description of Pick # 1b, of course the images won't be in the description so enjoy those while you can (Ahem! Might be a nice feature in the future PMG/NGC along with a higher word limit, just saying.) and I've trimmed down the original by roughly half, which is still not small enough to fit in the note description field. Anyway, I think I'll have to cut everything below the Security Features to fit this into the note description. I still have some work to do on it, a little more research, fact checking, some polishing of the writing and a little reorganizing of the text but I think it's far enough along to get some opinions of it and once done I'll be able to think about how best to trim this down to fit in the note description. At this rate I'll be done sometime in the next year or two, well here you go, opinions/critiques welcome
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PICK # 1b (Back Inverted)
UKRAINIAN PAPER MONEY # 1a (Back Inverted)
BANKNOTE REGISTER # N/A
ESPERANTO # N/A
BANKNOTE BOOK # N/A
PRINT DATE: 1917
TOTAL PRINTED: N/A
IN CIRCULATION: December 23, 1917 – November 1, 1918
DENOMINATION: 100 Karbovantsiv
DIMENTIONS (L X W)mm: 170 x 105
SIGNATURE: Mykhailo Kryvetskyi
WATERMARK: NONE
PRINTER: Kulzhenko Print Shop (Kiev)
COLORS: Yellow, Orange, Brown, Green, Violet
ARTIST/S: (G)Heorhii Narbut
FROM THE NATIONAL BANK OF UKRAINE: N/A
OBVERSE: Top center is the text Ukrainian National (People’s) Republic, below is an octagonal cartouche in which is printed the denomination in text, overtop of the National Symbol the Tryzub (Trident). Radiating from the cartouche are various floral design elements in which are contained the Coat of Arms of Ukraine (lower left) and the combined Coat of Arms of the Cities Kyiv and Odessa. To the left and right of the cartouche is the denomination printed numerically, at the lower left is the signature of the Director of the Bank along with the year printed, to the lower right is the signature of the treasurer below which is the series and block number. All 1917, 100 karbovantsiv banknotes are from block A D 185, there are no other blocks. Contemporary counterfeits are known of this note, they can be spotted by the color ink used for the signatures and block number. Authentic notes will have black ink, the counterfeits have brown ink for the signatures and block number.
REVERSE: Upper left the notes denomination printed in Russian, upper right the notes denomination printed in Polish below which is the series number, center bottom the notes denomination printed in Yiddish (100 karbovantsiv). Top center, the text “State Credit Notes of the Ukrainian People’s Republic are provided with the State property of the Republic, namely: subsoil, forests, railways, State revenues, including revenues from the sugar monopoly and other monopolies.”. Center the numerical denomination in a cartouche, with decorative floral elements deriving from a basket. At the lower left is the text, in a cartouche, “State Credit Tickets of the Ukrainian People’s Republic are on par with gold coin”. At the lower right is the text, in a cartouche, “Those guilty of forging State Credit Tickets are punished by deprivation of rights and hard labor.”.
SECURITY FEATURES: Baroque Design, wavey lines and a repeating design of 100 in a circle on the back.
NOTES: The first banknote issued by the newly formed Ukrainian National (People’s) Republic (UNR) in 1917, with a denomination of 100 Karbovantsiv. The Central Rada, the legislative branch of the Ukrainian government, passed a provisional law regarding the issuance of the Ukrainian National Republic’s banknotes. Passed on December 19, 1917, it read in part: “Banknotes shall be issued in karbovantsi, one Karbovanets containing 17,424 dolias of pure gold and having 2 hryvnias or 200 shahs.” The dolia is an old imperial Russian measure of weight, equal to approximately 44 milligrams or .044 grams or .0016 ounces. The note was designed by a talented graphic artist (G)Heorhii Narbut, who would go on to design several of the fledgling Republic’s banknotes and stamps. Narbut designed the note using Ukrainian Baroque stylistic elements, though which were depicted many important ideological messages that reflected key aspects of state-building, such as the use of the Tryzub (Trident) and the various depictions of Flora symbolizing strength, unity and growth. The ornate detail of the design on the note along with the decorative fonts and colors used (particularly on the front of the note) earned it the nickname “fried eggs” amongst the people. The 100 karbovantsiv notes were printed by the Kulzhenko Print Shop in Kyiv on ordinary thick paper, which made them vulnerable to forgery. When the 100 karbovantsiv note entered circulation on December 23, 1917 it included the first-ever official representation of the Tryzub (Trident), 52 days ahead of its legislative adoption as the state emblem of the UNR. The appearance of the Tryzub on the country’s first paper money became a major impetus for the adoption of Grand Prince Volodymyr’s (958 – 1015) emblem as the UNR’s coat of arms. The (non-numerical) denomination of the note (100 karbovantsiv) was printed in four languages on it, Ukrainian on the front then Russian, Polish and Yiddish on the back. This was done to convey and affirm the UPR’s policy of equal treatment of the country’s ethnic minorities, which constituted one-quarter of Ukraine’s population at the time. Unfortunately the note was pulled from circulation/declared non-legal tender after less than a year of circulation, as the retreating Red Army left the city of Kyiv in 1918 they took with them, along with their loot, the cliché (stereotype) for making the banknotes of 100 karbovantsiv of the 1917 series. Therefore the UNR announced the exchange of the 100 karbovantsiv banknotes for others (Namely the new hryvnia banknotes as the Karbovanets denominations were replaced by the hryvnia for a short time, much as they would be again in 1996.) up until November 1, 1918 after which they would not be accepted.
At the time there existed a confusing dual currency system in Ukraine, the Karbovanets was the original choice of the Central Rada in 1917 but it was soon replaced by the hryvnia. The Karbovanets was reestablished as a state currency by the Hetmanate in 1918 and after which there existed dual currency system where 2 hryvni were equal in value to 1 karbovanets. This currency duality was indicated on several banknotes of the period.
The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money lists the Pick # as 1b (Back Inverted), where as most other references list this note as 1a (Back inverted). This note is most commonly found with the inverted back in as much as this is the most common way in which this note was printed. An inverted back may not be proper or it may even have been a mistake, regardless as the most produced and most common example I would have expected it to be listed as 1a.
Sources:
Wikipedia
National Bank of Ukraine, Money Museum
Ukrainian Paper Money – Dmitri Kharitonov - print date 11/30/2000
Paper Money of Ukraine – Maxim Zagreb / Sergey Yatsenko - print date 2019
FULL CIRCLE / Ukraine’s Struggle for Independence 100 Years Ago 1917 – 1921 -Yurii Savchuk – print date 2019
The Ukrainian Weekly, Vol. LXI No. 5 – Article: NUMISMATICS: The “new” Hryvnia banknotes – not a first for Ukraine – Borys Zayachkivsky - Printed 1/31/1993
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