Subject In the early 20th century, Russia had insufficient funds to maintain stable economic life as a result of World War I and the revolution. Despite the efforts of the central government to control the emission process, it failed to prevent numerous local issues of money. The monetary policy of the Soviet Government was primarily focused on military tasks: the requirements of military communism, the need to restore the monetary system after World War II. During the 20th century, the government implemented a number of monetary reforms. The reforms of 1922-1924 repeated the success of the late 19th century: the second time in the history Russia introduced a stable currency, i.e. gold chervonets. Subsequent changes took place against the background of foreign countries' refusal to use precious metals in monetary circulation. In 1961, the content of gold in one ruble was set at the level of 0.222168 grams. Later, it was increased to 0.987412 grams of pure gold. This proportion survived until 1992, when the relation between the face value of a monetary unit and its gold content was abolished. Thus, the well-known inscription 'bank notes are secured by gold, precious metals and other assets of the State Bank' disappeared from banknotes. Objectives The article analyzes the development of precious metals and precious stones circulation in the 20th century. Methods The author describes the impact of perturbations in the economy and politics, World War I and World War II on creation of gold and foreign currency reserves. The study gives particular consideration to reforms of the monetary and credit system of the Soviet Union. Conclusions and Relevance The specific feature of the evolution of precious metals and precious stones circulation was the ad hoc nature of statutory regulation of these social relations. Under conditions of excessive emission of money (either made of precious metals or secured by precious metals and precious stones), which resulted in unbalanced monetary system, the aim of regulating measures usually was to mitigate the aftermath of excessive issue of monetary units and temporarily stabilize the monetary circulation.
Keywords: precious metals, precious stones, circulation, State Depository for Precious Metals, Russia, monetary circulation
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