Item number: A3647

Year: AD 1923

Material: Bronze

Size: 117.1 x 70.2 x 5.4 mm

Weight: 339.25 g

Manufactured by: Kunya Ark

Provenance: Stephen Album Rare Coins 2025

This is a bronze printing plate used by the Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic for producing 500-ruble banknotes.

The engraved surface represents the obverse of the note. In the upper left and right corners of the central rectangular frame appear the numerals “500,” between which is the Russian word “РУБЛЕЙ” (rubleĭ), forming the phrase “500 rubles” to denote its value. At the centre and lower portion of the frame are inscriptions in Uzbek written in Persian-style Perso-Arabic script: “بير صومى أولىغى” (bir so‘mi o‘lighi) and “چقار يىلغان آقچه لارلئ اون ميك صوميعه بر ا بردور” (chiqar yilghan aqcha larli on ming so‘miga barabardur), meaning “One sum is equal to ten thousand sums of the old currency.” The term sum (or som) originally signified “purity” and was historically used to refer to high-grade gold coins. By the late twentieth century, sum became the official currency name of the Republic of Uzbekistan, replacing the ruble. Surrounding the central rectangle on all four sides are four eight-pointed stars, each composed of two superimposed squares rotated by forty-five degrees. Inside each star is the inscription “بش يوز منات” (besh yuz manats), meaning “five hundred manats,” again indicating the denomination. The four corners outside the inscriptional area are filled with framed, diagonally cross-hatched patterns. Between the central rectangular field and the outer decorative area, four small perforations are drilled—likely used to secure the plate during the printing process. The reverse is smooth and uninscribed, serving as the surface in contact with the printing apparatus.

Although extant evidence indicates that the Khorezm People’s Government had already adopted three-colour overprinting techniques, the ink on this 500-ruble plate was applied in black only. Printing was carried out by pressing the plate onto large sheets of paper, which were then cut into individual notes. The dyes employed were traditional local pigments made from oak, pistachio leaves, apricot gum, and other indigenous materials.

The Khwarazm Khanate originated in the early sixteenth century, founded in the Khorezm region by Uzbek tribes that emerged after the fragmentation of the Chagatai Khanate. Its capital was long established at Khiva; hence Russian historians referred to it as the “Khanate of Khiva,” while some European scholars occasionally called it the “Uzbek Khanate.” Geographically, the khanate occupied the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River, encompassing the western part of present-day Uzbekistan and parts of Turkmenistan. Political power was concentrated in the hands of the Uzbek khan and his kin, yet its population also included Persians, Karakalpaks, and other Central Asian peoples. Throughout the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the khanate faced continual challenges from Persia, the Bukhara Khanate, and Kazakh nomadic confederations, and during the nineteenth century it gradually became a target of Russian imperial expansion southward.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the Russian Empire launched several campaigns against Khwarazm during its conquest of Central Asia. In AD 1873, Tsar Alexander II dispatched forces that decisively defeated the khanate, captured its capital, and compelled it to become a Russian protectorate. Although the khanate formally continued under its local rulers, its foreign policy and military affairs were entirely subordinated to Russia, and its economy was integrated into the imperial colonial system. For the following decades, the Khiva Khanate persisted as a local administration under Russian suzerainty, but it had effectively lost all independence and functioned as one of the empire’s subordinate regimes in Central Asia.

With the outbreak of the Russian October Revolution in AD 1917, Bolshevik influence rapidly penetrated Central Asia. As the imperial government collapsed, the region descended into political and economic turmoil. The reigning khan attempted to stabilise the currency by issuing silk notes. In AD 1920, Bolshevik troops and local revolutionary forces overthrew the last khan, Sayid Abdulla Khan, ending more than four centuries of Khwarazmian rule. The “Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic,” also known simply as the Khorezm Republic, was then established. In AD 1923 it was reorganised as the “Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic,” nominally an independent Soviet republic but in reality already integrated into the Soviet system. That same year, the Khorezm Communist Party decided to replace silk banknotes with paper issues. By AD 1924, following the Soviet national delimitation of Central Asia, the Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic was officially dissolved and its territory divided among the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Karakalpak Autonomous Region. From that point onward, Khorezm ceased to exist as an independent polity and became fully incorporated into the administrative and ethnic framework of the Soviet Union.

物件編號: A3647

年代: 公元 1923 年

材質: 青銅

尺寸: 117.1 x 70.2 x 5.4 mm

重量: 339.25 g

製造地: 古納亞克城堡 (直譯為舊堡壘)

來源: 史蒂芬稀有錢幣專輯 2025

這是一枚花剌子模人民蘇維埃共和國所用以印製500盧布紙鈔的青銅印版。

銅印版的印面為該紙鈔的正面，中央長方框之左上與右上角各有一數字「500」，「500」之間為俄文「РУБЛЕЙ」(rubleĭ)，合為「500盧布」，標明幣值。中央及下方為以波斯體波斯文書寫的烏茲別克語「بير صومى أولىغى」(bir so‘mi o‘lighi)及「چقار يىلغان آقچه لارلئ اون ميك صوميعه بر ا بردور」(chiqar yilghan aqcha larli on ming so‘miga barabardur)，合意為「一蘇姆等於舊幣一萬蘇姆」，蘇姆(som, or sum)原意為純淨，歷史上常用以指稱高純度的金幣。二十世紀末，蘇姆取代盧布，成為烏茲別克官方貨幣的名稱。長方框的上下左右四方，方別各有兩個正方形相錯45度角套疊而成的八角星，其中均有「بش يوز منات」(besh yuz manats)，即「貨幣五百」，同樣標示了幣值。除幣銘區域外的四個角，以框起的斜紋網格區域填充。中央具幣銘的長方框四角，與周圍填充區域間的空白縫隙，鑿穿四孔，可能是用以固定印模。背面光平無文，為與機具設備相接之面。

儘管就存世實物來看花剌子模人民政府已經將三色套印技術投入實用，但該500盧布印模的印墨僅為黑色。印製時會在大張紙上壓印，後再行裁切。各色染料均為本地傳統染料，以橡樹、開心果葉、杏膠等製成。

花剌子模汗國(Khwarazm Khanate)起源於16世紀初，是由察合台汗國分裂後的烏茲別克部族在花剌子模地區建立的政權。首都長期設於希瓦城，故俄羅斯史家稱為「希瓦汗國」，部分歐洲史家亦有時稱其為「烏茲別克汗國」，其地理位置位於阿姆河下游，涵蓋今烏茲別克西部與土庫曼部分地區。汗國的政治權力集中於烏茲別克汗及同族之統治者，但其臣民包括波斯人、卡拉卡爾帕克人及其他中亞民族。花剌子模汗國在公元16至18世紀持續受到波斯、布哈拉汗國與哈薩克遊牧部族的挑戰，並在19世紀逐漸成為俄羅斯帝國南下擴張的目標。

公元19世紀中葉，俄羅斯帝國在征服中亞的過程中多次進攻花剌子模汗國。公元1873年，沙皇亞歷山大二世派遣軍隊徹底擊敗花剌子模汗國，攻佔首都，迫使其成為俄羅斯的保護國。從此，雖然花剌子模汗國仍由當地汗王名義統治，但其外交與軍事完全受制於俄羅斯，經濟體系亦被納入俄羅斯帝國的殖民經濟秩序。此後的數十年間，希瓦汗國的地方統治持續存在，但已不復獨立，成為俄羅斯帝國在中亞的重要從屬政權之一。

隨著公元1917年俄國十月革命的爆發，布爾什維克黨人的勢力逐漸滲透至中亞地區。帝俄政府崩潰之際，中亞也陷入政治與經濟危機。當時執政的汗王印製絲幣(Silk notes)嘗試穩定貨幣。公元1920年，布爾什維克軍隊與當地革命力量推翻了花剌子模汗國最後一任汗王賽義德·阿卜杜拉汗(Sayid Abdulla Khan)的統治，結束了汗國長達四百年的歷史。隨後成立了「花剌子模人民蘇維埃共和國」(Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic)，又稱花剌子模共和國。公元1923年，花剌子模共和國被改組為「花剌子模蘇維埃社會主義共和國」(Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic)，名義上是獨立的蘇維埃加盟共和國，實際上已是蘇聯體系下的一部分。同年，花剌子模共產黨決定改絲為紙，印製紙幣。至公元1924年，隨著蘇聯在中亞實行民族疆界劃分(National Delimitation of Central Asia)，花剌子模蘇維埃社會主義共和國被正式解散，其領土被劃分納入烏茲別克蘇維埃社會主義共和國、土庫曼蘇維埃社會主義共和國與卡拉卡爾帕克自治州。自此，花剌子模作為獨立政體徹底消亡，融入蘇聯的行政與民族結構之中。