Khakassia Paper Money

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Chairman:
Aleksei Ivanovich Lebed
Dec.1996 - Present

Khakassia is a republic in the Russian Federation located in south central Siberia with the capital at Abakan.  The majority of the population there are slavs, only a small minority are khakassy - people using a Turkic language. Prior to 1991 Khakassia was an autonomous oblast within the Krasnoyarsk Krai.  

The president of the republic, Aleksei Ivanovich Lebed, is the younger brother of the deceased Krasnoyarsk governor, Aleksandr Ivanovich Lebed, who died in a helicopter crash on April 29, 2002. Aleksandr was one of the most popular men in Russia and a strong candidate for President of Russia in 1996.

By the autumn of 1996 the government of Khakassia had accumulated huge debts with their pensioners. In this framework the Counsel of Ministers decided in September 1996 to issue special "pensioners" money in the form of 5000 Ruble banknotes, referred to locally as "Katanovki". The result was that by January 1997 the state debt was eliminated and no other denominations were issued.

The text on the front of the note reads "obligatory to acceptance in specialized enterprises and organizations serving pensioners in the territory of the Republic of Khakassia".  In practice it meant that a pensioner could use them in special shops to buy foodstuffs, industrial goods and pay the household bills according to the local government. It should be noted that for many years pensioners in Russia (and before in the USSR) have been paid through the post offices. 

 An interesting fact is that the person pictured at the right of the banknote face is Nikolay Fedorovich Katanov who was born on May 6, 1862 in Khakassia. Katanov was a famous 19th century ethnographer and numismatist who wrote and lectured extensively about this region. He studied coins from excavated hordes for clues to the history of the Turkic tribes. Katanov died on March 10, 1922 in Kazan, Tatarstan.  
 
Our thanks go to numismatist and writer Mikhail "Misha" Istomin for the excellent background information he contributed to this article. Another of his articles we have available on this website is PAPER MONEY CATALOGUES USED BY RUSSIAN COLLECTORS.  Misha is a member of the International Bank Note Society and lives in the Ukraine. He has contributed a number of articles to the IBNS Journal and may be contacted at: istom@vlink.kharkov.ua 

*  Paper Money of Russia, 1769-2000,  Rybachenko & Bytov