Russia Alexander III 25 Roubles 1909 P12b Crisp GVF-EF

Bank of England, Ten Shilling red/brown note signed by L.K. O'Brien as Chief Cashier. VERY FINE Condition

In August 2004 Thailand issued a special 100 baht note to mark the birthday of Queen Sirikit and to raise money for the Queen’s charities. It is a wonderful note printed vertically in pretty pastel colours. The Queen is shown seated beside King Rama IX in the front. On the back, vignettes include the Queen, her crowning, with a young baby and an elephant and her calf.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, banknotes were issued by a vast number of entities until 1922 when the Soviet Union was established and a unified currency for the whole territory was introduced. These 100 rouble notes were issued for Turkestan in 1918 (PS1168).Russian Turkestan was a region of Central Asia which today consists of the republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and Kazakhstan. Its capital was Tashkent. The central vignette is a double headed eagle holding three shields. The design on the back incorporates another double headed eagle and a star and crescent alluding perhaps to the Turkic speaking population. If this note ever turns up it’s just one or maybe two at a time so we were delighted when a traveller recently sold us a small group in Good Fine-VF. A scarce note.