Russian Rouble
The Russian rouble is the official currency of the Russian Federation, as well as the disputed territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (both in Georgia). It is also the unofficial currency of Belarus. The Rouble was used throughout the Soviet Union until the union's dissolution in 1991.
The rouble is subdivided into 100 kopeks, and the ISO code for the currency is RUB. The official currency symbol for the rouble is now ₽ which is a Cyrillic alphabet "er" (which looks the same as a Roman alphabet "P") with a line through it. This symbol was introduced in late 2013 following a public vote. Prior to that the rouble had had no definite currency symbol since the 1800s.
Russian Rouble history
The word "rouble" is popularly assumed to have arisen from the Russian word "rubit" which means "to chop".
The rouble has been the Russian currency unit since the 1500s. The kopek was introduced in 1710 as one one-hundredth of a rouble. Rouble coins were originally silver - in 1704 Peter I standardised the amount of silver that one rouble contained as being 28 grams, which was reduced to 18 grams in the late 1700s. Higher denominations of roubles were cast in gold and platinum.
In the early 1800s coins were issued for 1/4, 1/2, 2, 5 (copper), 5, 10, 25, 50 kopeks and 1 (silver) and 4 (gold) Roubles. Later notes were introduced for 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 roubles, with a 500 rouble note added in 1989, and 250 and 1,000 rouble notes added in 1917.
Following the First World War, Russia suffered hyperinflation which rendered the rouble as being virtually worthless. The Russian rouble was replaced by the Soviet rouble in 1922.
When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Russia retained the use of the rouble, issuing new banknotes to depict the "Bank of Russia" in 1993 to join the 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 rouble coins that has been issued a year earlier. The rouble was devalued again following a further spell of hyperinflation. In 1998 it was re-denominated, with one "new" rouble equalling 1000 "old" roubles. The currency was devalued yet again in August 1998 as Russia went through another financial crisis. The rouble lost around 70 percent of its value against the US dollar in only six months.
A new set of coins were issued in 1998: 1, 5, 10, 50 kopeks, and 1, 2 and 5 roubles. A 10 rouble coin was introduced in 2009. Due to the continual devaluation of the currency, 1 and 5 kopek coins are essentially worthless (a 1 kopek coin is worth £0.00016) and most stores refuse to accept them. Also in 1998 new notes were issued for 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 roubles.
Russian Rouble today
Today, one Russian Rouble is worth around £0.016, or $0.026.
One British Pound is worth around 62 Russian roubles, while one US dollar is worth around 38 roubles.
In 2009 the Russian government banned gambling and shut down all existing casinos virtually overnight. They decided to limit gambling to four territories: Altai, Primorie, Kaliningrad and Krasnodar and Rostov Border. There are no online casino in Russia, although there are a few online casinos that will accept Russian roubles as a valid currency. Players will need to convert their roubles into a currency which they can use while at the casino.