In Russian this rhymes. Sto druzyea luche chem sto rublyea. Сто друзей луче чем сто рублей.
Take a look at the Russian currency, the Ruble; «Рубел». One Ruble is composed of 100 kopeks. In Soviet times it was considered to be a standard price that a loaf of bread would cost 3 rubles. Since those days the currency blew out with large inflation. In the early 1990s three zeros were chopped of the end. In 1998 6 rubles was the exchange rate for $1US; 4 rubles for $1 AUD.
Then in August of 1998 there was an economic crisis. The ruble blew out as far as 33 to the US dollar once the crisis had its full effect. In 1998 it cost 4 rubles to catch the bus, 3 rubles for a loaf of bread. Since then the Russian economy has begun to recover. The US dollar is now worth less than 27 rubles and closing in on 26. The Australian dollar is worth 20 rubles and sometimes it drops below to 19.
It now costs 10 rubles to catch the bus and between 10-15 to buy a loaf of bread. That may sound cheap, but it costs 10 000 rubles to rent a small flat. It costs 3 rubles per mb to download if you have an ADSL internet connection. Needless to say we use dialup which is still expensive at 24 rubles an hour.
Australia has deleted its one and two cent coins. Canada is still plagued by its obsolete penny. Russia needs to eliminate the kopek. The smallest unit I have seen is 5 kopeks the exchange value of 0.25 cents AUD.
The denominations are: 5 kopeks, 10 kopeks, 50 kopeks, 1 ruble, 2 rubles and 5 rubles. These are the coins. In Australia known as 'shrapnel' here known as «мелеч».
The bank notes are 10 rubles (50 cents AUD) Krasnoyarsk City images, 50 rubles ($2.50) St Petersburg City images, 100 rubles ($5) Moscow City images, 500 rubles ($25) Arkangel City images, 1000 rubles ($50) Yaroslavl City images and 5000 rubles ($250). The 5000 note is new and I have never had one.
The ruble does not have its own symbol like the dollar, euro or pound.
2 comments:
Yes, мелеч must be a pain in the backside. When we were there in winter, there were beautiful ice sculptures in public places everywhere - a true winter wonderland. It amused me that these glorious creations were dotted all over with kopeks! Even the Russians feel these are throw away coins - not worth the metal they are made of.
The only time you really see the use of kopeks is when buying groceries - particularly food items. My question is though, if kopeks were eliminated because of their low value - what would the effect on inflation be? At present the inflation rate in Russia is ~1% per month - maybe slightly less. So food may go up a few kopeks a month. After a year your ten рубль rouble bread will be about 11 roubles, but if there were no kopeks, would the price rise to 11 roubles quicker to cover the extra cost? - like we round up to the nearest 5 cents. Somehow I don't see the rounding down occurring.
I don't know, what do you think?
There is some rounding occurring. However it is very inprecise. Sometimes I have had something rounded down 4 kopeks or rounded up 4 kopeks. Of course since it is so miniscule I don't worry about it.
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