RUSSIAN COUNTERFEITERS ARE NOT STUPID.

Komsomolskayapravda suggested on July 25 that the Russian Central Bankwas foolish to introduce new bills for denominations smaller than50,000 rubles. "The point is that according to unofficialsources, the cost of forging a ruble note regardless of its denominationexceeds 8,000 rubles, not to mention the risk of such business.Consequently, there is obviously no point in forging ruble notesexcept for those of 50,000 rubles or more." The Russianbank plans to introduce new 5,000, and 1,000 ruble notes as wellas new 10,000 and 50,000 notes.

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