Ober Ost: occupation by Germany (1916-1918)

This serie of banknotes belongs to the period of occupation of the German Empire of the current area of ​​Poland, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. Ober Ost is the abbreviation in German of Supreme Command of all the German Forces in the East, being the first supreme commander the general Paul von Hindenburg, replaced in 1916 by the general Erich Ludendorff. Ober Ost was divided into three districts: Bialystok-Grodno, Lithuania and Courland. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the German defeat in the war, German troops abandoned the Ober-Ost and only ultra-nationalist Freikorps troops who continued to fight in the Baltic countries against the independence movements of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (with the support of the numerous ethnic Germans, who wished to create the United Baltic Duchy, territory formed by the governments of Courland, Livonia and Estonia, in personal union with the German monarchy). In 1919 the government of the Weimar Republic dissolved the Eastern Army. Ost ruble banknotes were issued in Posen (now Poznań) and Ostmark ones in Kowno (now Kaunas) by the Ostbank für Handel und Gewerbe (Bank of the East for exchange and trade) and are called Darlehnskassenscheine. The equivalence between currencies was 1 Ostruble = 2 Ostmark. There are banknotes of 50 kopeks, 1 ruble, 3 rubles, 5 rubles, 10 rubles, 25 rubles, 100 rubles; 1/2 mark, 1 mark, 2 mark, 5 mark, 20 mark, 50 mark, 100 mark and 1,000 mark.

50 kopeks (fünfzig Kopeken/pięćdziesiąt kopiejek/penkiasdešimts kapeikų/peezdefmit kapeikas)

This banknote worth 50 kopeks was first circulated in April the 17th 1916. On the main side there's the written value of the banknote with two 50's, the name of the currency (Darlehnskassenscheine) and the name of the Bank of the East in German (Ostbank für Handel und Gewerbe). In the lower part of the banknote there's a text saying that counterfeiting banknotes or using fake banknotes is punished by law. The rest of the banknote is fulled with decorative geometric elements.
On the other side of the banknote there's a big 50 with the written value in Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian (using old ortography). Moreover there's the name of the currency in Polish (Wykaz kasy pożyczkowej), Lithuanian (Skolinamosios kasos ženklas) and Latvian (Aizdewu kafes fizme) with texts in those languages saying that counterfeiting or using fake banknotes is punish with a maximum of 8 years of prission. This banknote has a girl as digital watermark and a security thread too. The size of this banknote is 12.6 cm x 8.1 cm.

1 ruble (ein Rubel/jeden rubel/vienas rublis/weens rublis)

This banknote worth 1 ruble was first circulated in April the 17th 1916. On the main side there's the written value of the banknote with two 1's, the name of the currency (Darlehnskassenscheine) and the name of the Bank of the East in German (Ostbank für Handel und Gewerbe). In the lower part of the banknote there's a text saying that counterfeiting banknotes or using fake banknotes is punished by law. The rest of the banknote is fulled with decorative geometric elements.
On the other side of the banknote there's a big 1 with the written value in Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian (using old ortography). Moreover there's the name of the currency in Polish (Wykaz kasy pożyczkowej), Lithuanian (Skolinamosios kasos ženklas) and Latvian (Aizdewu kafes fizme) with texts in those languages saying that counterfeiting or using fake banknotes is punish with a maximum of 8 years of prission. This banknote has a girl as digital watermark and a security thread too. The size of this banknote is 12.9 cm x 8.5 cm.