RUSSIA

Russia, now called the Russian Federation, is a country the straddles the north of both The European and Asian continents with a capital city of Moscow. The First Tsar of Russia was the Grand Duke Ivan IV ( Ivan the Terrible)who was crowned in 1547. Under Peter the Great, 1721, Russia was proclaimed an empire and recognised as a world power. In march 1917 , the February revolution took place (change of calendar dates changed the dates from the end of February to the beginning of march), forced the abdication of the last Tzar - Nicholas II who was later executed. A coalition of political parties took power and declared a provisional government, In October the Bolsheviks led the October revolution that led to the setting up of the USSR, the first socialist state.In 1991 the USSR dissolved into 15 Post-soviet states and Boris Yetsin was elected president of the new Russian Federation.
the first note above is possibly one of the oldest in my collection, its the 1 ruble note from 1898
Monetary units:

1 ruble = 100 Kopeks up to 1997                           ruble = рубль
1 ruble = 1000 old rubles 1998 onwards                kopeks = копеек

The first note above is possibly one of the oldest in my collection, its the 1 Ruble note from 1898. the other is one of the first notes I got to start the collection, its a 250 Ruble note from 1917 - an important year for Russia. this one is a Soviet Government issue rather than the provisional government issue      ( the serial numbers between AA- 000 and AA - 018 are provisional govt). it has the imperial eagle on the back and if you hold it to the light (to my horror) it has a swastika underprint. I discovered later that the Russian Tsars used the Swastika as a symbol long before the Nazis did !!

This note is a bit of a mystery - its a 20 Kopek note but has no date and is not listed in the reference books. Cyrillic, (Russian alphabet letters) like Arabic , I have difficulty reading - well actually cant read at all - so deciphering some of these was a bit of a task. - as usual , anyone with info please leave a comment. thanks

Finally, this 1993 100 Ruble note featuring the tricolour flag on the front and the Spasskaya tower in the Kremlin on the reverse.

Original @ here kids britannica

THE MMM SCAM

The MMM scam was one of the biggest "Ponzi" schemes ever committed. Sergei Mavrodi, his brother and a business partner scammed over $10 billion from anywhere between 5 and 40 million investors. the actual figure is not known. The notes above were used almost like share certificates!!!