The Numismatic Bibliomania Society Logo

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V3 2000 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 32, August 6, 2000, Article 14

AN IGNOMINIOUS END FOR RUBLES

A front-page article in the July 26, 2000 issue of The Wall Street Journal reported on the disposition of obsolete ruble notes in Russia.

"When Russia's financial markets buckled in August 1998, and the ruble collapsed, Mr. Nikiforov [of the Ulyanovsk Roofing Material Factory] had a brainchild. Already wrestling with severe shortages of old cloth and wastepaper, his basic raw materials, he proposed an unorthodox way to mop up Russia's excess money supply.

We'd already tried wood chips and even straw, but to no avail, " say Mr. Nikiforov. "We found that bank notes worked much better." A ton of rubles costs less than $15, not even a third as much as scrap paper.

Not only do rubles help plug leaky roofs, he says they also eventually could revolutionize personal hygiene. He shows off certificates from the health ministry and epidemiological control department certifying that bank notes pose no health hazard as toilet paper.

Toilet tissue made of rubles - known in the trade as MBS, a Russian acronym for "Special Waste Paper" - would be "a bit rough" and not particularly absorbent, he says, but it would be cheap.

"Marx and Lenin predicted we wouldn't need gold and would one day make toilets out of it," says Valery Perfilov, director of a dusty complex of museums in the center of town dedicated to Lenin. "We don't have golden toilets yet, but we have roofs covered with money. Who knows what might happen next?""

Wayne Homren, Editor

Google NBS (coinbooks.org) Web

Content presented in The E-Sylum is not necessarily researched or independently fact-checked, and views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.

This is a static archive page documenting the originally published content. Links were active at the time of publication but may no longer work. Check subsequent issues for corrections and commentary.

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature.   For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/ There is a membership application available on the web site.  To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application.  Visit the Membership page. Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page link.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: E-Sylum Editor

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V3 2000 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

Copyright © 1998 - 2020 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS)
All Rights Reserved.

NBS Home Page
Contact the NBS Webmaster
Privacy Policy