Soviet ruble

The Soviet ruble or rouble (Russian: рубль; see below for other languages of the USSR) was the currency of the Soviet Union. One ruble was divided into 100 kopeks, (also transliterated as kopecks or copecks Russian: копе́йка, pl. копе́йки – kopeyka, kopeyki).

In addition to standard banknotes, the Soviet ruble was available in the form of foreign rubles (Russian: инвалютный рубль); also, several forms of virtual rubles were used for inter-enterprise accounting and international settlement in the Comecon zone. Many of the ruble designs were created by Ivan Dubasov. The production of Soviet rubles was the responsibility of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, or Goznak, which was in charge of the printing of and materials production for banknotes and the minting of coins in Moscow and Leningrad.

Etymology

The word "ruble" is derived from the Slavic verb рубить, rubit', i.e., to chop. Historically, "ruble" was a piece of a certain weight chopped off a silver ingot (grivna), hence the name. The word kopek, kopeck, copeck, or kopeyka (in Russian: копейка, kopeyka) is a diminutive form of the Russian kop'yo (копьё) — a spear.