Russian Oil Derricks - Not, it is a Svanetian tower!

In my position as editor of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money series, we get lots of emails to confirm identifications and correct or enhance listings.

One of these recent emails is from Mike Woodcock who is an American living and working in
Tbilisi, Georgia.

He writes to inform us that our identification of Russia, Tran
scaucasian S635 75,000,000 Rubles as presented in the
Specialized Issues catalog, as having "Oil derrick on back." is wrong. However, for one who is familiar with American Stocks and Bonds of the 19th Century Pennsylvania era, they are very close.

Mike informs us with a current photo that "
these tall structures are Svanetian towers only found in the Northern part of Georgia in Svaneti Province.They were used as defensive bastions hundreds of years ago and today are used primarily for storage and as stables for livestock. The image I have included is of the towers from the town of Mistia in Svaneti that I took.

Welcomed information like this only enhances our catalogs, Thanks Mike!

George