WWII SPECIMEN UKRAINIAN NOTES

 

Over the past several years, Stack's Bowers Galleries has been selling the Al Kugel Collection of World Paper Money. Mr. Kugel was a well-known collector who built advanced collections of stamps and paper money, with a focus on items from Eastern Europe and World War II. His collection of paper money is among the most exciting cabinets to have come to the market in this century, and many notes set record prices. With the end of the collection in sight, it is time for one more article focused on our offering of a set of notes from Ukraine in the January 2026 NYINC World Paper Money auction. It is sure to attract much interest from specialized collectors, and it will surely be seen as one of the highlights of this now famous collection.

Offered in individual lots, will be a complete set of specimens from the Emission Bank of Ukraine, prepared by the German army and perhaps intended for use by the occupying force. Three notes are denominated in Rubles, while four are denominated in Chervontsiv (1 Chervontsiv being equal to 10 Rubles). The notes have a fairly simplistic design, but are heralded as great rarities. Very few ‘issued' notes (meaning fully printed with serial numbers, as they were never issued into circulation) have appeared in the marketplace. We did previously sell a 5 Chervontsiv (arguably the only denomination that sometimes becomes available) from the Al Kugel Collection, which brought $24,000 in our Fall 2025 Maastricht Showcase Auction.

Operation Barbarossa began on June 22, 1941, which saw 3.8 million personnel of the Axis powers invade the Soviet Union (the most significant invasion force in the history of warfare). The Soviet Red Army was suffering internally at the time due to the Great Purge of the officer corps by Stalin, most of whom were executed or imprisoned. Initial advances by the Axis invaders were immense, swallowing up large swaths of land and taking many prisoners. The advance was eventually halted in December 1941, when the Red Army regrouped and launched counteroffensives. Much of Ukraine was occupied from 1941 until October 1944. The warfare in Ukraine was brutal (much like the rest of the Eastern Front), with many atrocities and war crimes committed by the Nazis. This series of notes was never issued after the Germans decided not to use the Russian language on the notes. Instead, during the occupation, the Zentralnotenbank Ukraine issued notes in German, which are much easier to acquire.

Each note in the set featured in our official auction of the NYINC is a specimen produced in Germany, with official annotations and a ‘DRUCKPROBE' (printer's sample) perforation. They are fresh, bright, and certainly among the highlights of the extensive Al Kugel Collection. According to the German Rosenberg catalog, the set is unique, having originally come from the specimen collection of the German government printer. In addition to this, there are two other notes from this series that will be featured in the sale, a 1 Ruble and a 1 Chervontsiv with regular serial numbers, both extreme rarities. We are aware of a single previous sale of the 1 Ruble in ‘issued' format – in 2013 one brought $35,000 in a European auction. To the best of our knowledge, it might be the first time that the 1 Chervontsiv appears at public auction in this format, putting a fitting end to the sale of the Al Kugel Collection. Look for the sale to be posted on our website in the latter half of December. The auction will take place in conjunction with the New York International Numismatic Convention in the middle of January of 2026.

To read the complete article, see:
Coming Soon: An Extremely Rare Set of Unissued Ukrainian Notes (https://stacksbowers.com/coming-soon-an-extremely-rare-set-of-unissued-ukrainian-notes/)

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