Money makes the world go around, or so they say.
Here is the Mendeleyev Journal tutorial on Russian money, assisted by the able guys of REAL RUSSIA television.
The official form of currency in the Russian Federation is the ruble, or рубль in the Russian language. A ruble is just one and anything more takes on the plural form, рубли́ which is spoken as “ru-bli.”
The official abbreviation for the ruble is (RUB) expressed as руб in the Cyrillic alphabet and you’ll find that in advertisements and some stores:
руб = rubles. The number shown below the price is the amount of kilograms for each beverage.
In other advertisements and in some markets and stores you’ll find a single p, the letter R in Russian Cyrillic to mark prices in rubles:
Rubles are marked it this ad with an p (the letter R in Russian).
A single ruble equals 100 kopeks and one kopek is копейка, spoken as “ka-pek-ah.” The plural Russian form is копейки and sounds like “ka-peki.” For the moment there is no official sign or logo for Russian currency although the Bank of Russia is holding a contest in which citizens can submit drawings and logo ideas for the ruble.
Some say that the term “ruble” was taken from the Russian word руби́ть, “ru bit” which is translated as to “chop.” Supposedly a “ruble” was a small chip of silver that had been chopped from a silver ingot, known as a grivna. That is indeed interesting because “Grivna” is the name today for money in Ukraine.
And how about those Russian coins and bills–how do they look and what is their story? For that we turn to Sergei and Sergei from REAL RUSSIAN television.