The Ural franc (Уральский франк) was a

scrip A scrip (or ''chit'' in India) is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitive payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local co ...

issued in Sverdlovsk (

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...

) in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

in 1991 by a team of businessmen and politicians headed by Anton Bakov. In the 1990s the former USSR structures were collapsing and undergoing large-scale transformations and stresses. In 1991 the future of Russian state was uncertain and an idea for separate money was reasonable to maintain local economics, but was never implemented. In 1993 there was a short-lived project of

Ural Republic The Ural Republic (russian: Уральская Республика) was an unrecognized subject of the Russian Federation that existed from July 1, 1993 to November 9, 1993 within the boundaries of Sverdlovsk Oblast region. It was formed as a re ...

at the same area. Nowadays it is widely thought that Francs were made for it. It is denied by involved people, primarily Bakov who participated in both: separate currency other than

Russian Ruble ''hum''; cv, тенкĕ ''tenke''; kv, шайт ''shayt''; Lak: къуруш ''k'urush''; Mari: теҥге ''tenge''; os, сом ''som''; tt-Cyrl, сум ''sum''; udm, манет ''manet''; sah, солкуобай ''solkuobay'' , name_ab ...

was generally illegal by that time. But the banknotes were later used as money substitute in 1997–2000 at the "city-forming" in the northern

Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblast) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as ...

's Serov town where Bakov served as director. The notes, all 145 × 80 mm, came in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 francs (франков). They were made according to sketches by architect Sophia Demidova at the

Goznak Joint Stock Company "Goznak" (short for ''Государственный знак'', or State Insignia) is a Russian joint-stock company responsible for research and development as well as manufacturing security products including banknotes, coin ...

factory in Perm city. Nowadays they have

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also incl ...

value and are exhibited in museums. In 2021, to mark Ural franc's 30th anniversary, its creator Anton Bakov issued a silver coin also called Ural franc. 500 coins were issued weighing 20 grams each. They are supposed to be of interest for

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inc ...

and are not intended to be launched as money as this is illegal in Russia. However, Bakov has assigned them a

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...

status within the

Binance Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands. Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a dev ...

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, ...

network with the token ''Uralfranc'' https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4919731 and declared that he might issue more coins if there is a demand. The coin features hand-drawn portrait of Bogdashko Toporok the supposed 17th century ancestor of Bakov.

References

Economic history of Russia Local currencies Sverdlovsk Oblast 1996 in Russia Currencies introduced in 1991 {{money-unit-stub