The ruble has been the Russian unit of currency for about 500 years. From 1710, the ruble was divided into 100 kopeks. The amount of precious metal in a ruble varied over time. In a 1704 currency reform, Peter I standardized the ruble to 28 grams of silver. While ruble coins were silver, there were higher denominations minted of gold and platinum. By the end of the 18th century, the ruble was set to 4 zolotnik 21 dolya (almost exactly equal to 18 grams) of pure silver or 27 dolya (almost exactly equal to 1.2 grams) of pure gold, with a ratio of 15:1 for the values of the two metals. In 1828, platinum coins were introduced with 1 ruble equal to 77? dolya (3.451 grams). On December 17, 1885, a new standard was adopted which did not change the silver ruble but reduced the gold content to 1.161 grams, pegging the gold ruble to the French franc at a rate of 1 ruble = 4 francs. This rate was revised in 1897 to 1 ruble = 2? francs (0.774 grams gold). With the outbreak of the First World War, the gold standard peg was dropped and the ruble fell in value, suffering from hyperinflation in the early 1920s.
In 1922, the first of several redenominations took place, at a rate of 1 "new" ruble for 10,000 "old" rubles. The chervonets was also introduced in 1922.A second redenomination took place in 1923, at a rate of 100 to 1. Again, only paper money was issued. During the livestime of this currency, the first money of the Soviet Union was issued.
A third redenomination in 1924 introduced the "gold" ruble at a value of 50,000 rubles of the previous issue. This reform also saw the ruble linked to the chervonets, at a value of 10 rubles. Coins began to be issued again in 1924, whilst paper money was issued in rubles for values below 10 rubles and in chervonets for higher denominations.
Following World War II, the Soviet government implemented a confiscatory redenomination of the currency to reduce the amount of money in circulation. This only affected the paper money. Old rubles were revalued at one tenth of their face value.
See Soviet ruble for new currencies of the former Soviet republics. The 1961 redenomination was a repeat of the 1947 reform, with the same terms applying. The Soviet ruble of 1961 was formally equal to 0.987412 gram of gold, but the exchange for gold was never available to the general public. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ruble remained the currency of the Russian Federation. New set of banknotes was issued in the name of Bank of Russia in 1993. During the period of hyperinflation of the early 1990s, the ruble was significantly devalued.
The ruble was redenominated on January 1, 1998, with one new ruble equalling 1000 old rubles. The redenomination was a purely psychological step that did not solve the fundamental economic problems faced by the Russian economy at the time, and the currency was devalued in August 1998 following the 1998 Russian financial crisis. The ruble lost 70% of its value against the U.S. Dollar in the 6 months following this 1998 Russian financial crisis. In November of 2004, the authorities of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk Oblast) erected a five-meter monument to the ruble.
Russian Currency ruble is the Old Russian payment and monetary unit, this coin was existing in ancient times, in middle centuries, in USSR, RSFSR, in Russia and Belorussia. In ancient times it had few names: ruble, ruble tselkovyi, tselkovyi. In accordance with historical sources word ?ruble? appeared in Novgorod, in XIII century and first meant a name of Novgorod Grivna (grivna looks like a bar of silver).
ruble was used as payment facility since the middle of XV century. Weight of grivna was equal to common weight standard of that period - grivna or grivenka had to be equal to 204 gram, and 200 coins (deneg or rubles) was produced from each Grivna. Simply, each bar of silver (grivna) was cut from end to equal pieces (please look at the picture below). ruble as a mean of payment was known in neighboring countries quite well. So, historians says that before 1413 Belorussian ruble was equal to 100 Prague groshes (coins), in XVI-XVIII century - to 100 Lithuanian groshes (coins) or 125 Poland groshes.
