bavarikon4UPaper money in Lithuania
Lithuania formed a union of states with Poland from the 15th to the 18th century. In 1795 Lithuania became a province of the Russian Empire. More than a hundred years later, in 1918, independence from the Russian Empire and the establishment of the Republic of Lithuania finally followed.
Up until independence, the Russian Empire’s paper money was in circulation and therefore the rouble as currency. In the First World War, during the occupation by the German Reich, there were also Ostbank banknotes for trade and commerce. In the first years of the republic, these still remained in circulation, but the currency was renamed “auksinas”.
Lietuvos Bankas was established as the central bank of issue by law in 1922. It received the sole issuing right. At the same time, Lithuania introduced its own national currency, the Lithuanian litas. The previous means of payment were exchanged for new banknotes. Further issues by Lietuvos Bankas followed until the end of the First Lithuanian Republic in 1939/40. The rouble was once again designated as the currency with Lithuania’s annexation to the Soviet Union.
>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Paper money in Europe" of the Giesecke+Devrient Stiftung Geldscheinsammlung (Giesecke+Devrient foundation: collections of bank notes).