Payment stamp at Jewelry Trade Store No. 17, Krasnodar, Krasnaya St. 174.
From the early 1960s, the USSR began to develop active cooperation with socialist and developing countries. Thousands of Soviet specialists were sent abroad for work. The government faced the question of how to “protect” them from foreign currency.
A practical need arose to create a system in which citizens would not receive currency in hand and would spend the funds earned in foreign currency back home.
The most important parts of the new system were the USSR Bank for Foreign Trade (Vneshtorgbank of the USSR) and the all-Union association Vnesposyltorg. In the former, citizens were required to keep foreign currency in the form of foreign-currency rubles, and through the network of Vnesposyltorg stores and firms to spend it.
It is important to note that, unlike other socialist countries, currency “substitutes” in the USSR were issued not for foreigners, but for its own citizens.
A detachable check of Series D of Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) of the USSR was a monetary obligation of Vnesheconombank (Vneshtorgbank) of the USSR to pay the amount stated on the check. The checks were bound into checkbooks of the corresponding denomination. Detachable checks were intended for payments by diplomatic personnel for goods and services in specialized stores. All checks were printed by Goznak.
The USSR Bank for Foreign Trade (Vneshtorgbank of the USSR) was established in 1924. The terms for maintaining accounts changed constantly. The Bank’s clients included both legal entities and individuals.
For senior diplomatic personnel (from the rank of counselor and above), there were separate Series “D” checks, accepted for payment on a par with cash foreign currency from foreigners in the parallel system of hard-currency stores—“Beryozka” shops.
Thus, in the USSR there existed two completely separate (check-based and hard-currency) retail systems. In hard-currency stores, only foreigners, diplomats, and the highest party nomenklatura could legally shop. Ordinary overseas workers had to use only the check-based “Beryozka” shops, which in turn were closed to other Soviet citizens who had only Soviet rubles.