There is an opinion that the 500 Russian ruble banknote dedicated to the city of Arkhangelsk is decorated with the image of a military sailing ship that has never been in Russian territorial waters. We checked if this is true.

The fact that one of the most popular Russian banknotes these days depicts the three-masted training ship of the Argentine Navy “Libertad” is reported “Hodor", forum "I cried"and many other resources. Adding to the curiosity is the fact that the ship, exotic for Russia, is depicted against the backdrop of the Arkhangelsk sea and river terminal.

The current 500 ruble banknotes were put into circulation on January 1, 1998 and have been updated since then three times. The description of the banknote on the Bank of Russia website says: “The main image of the front side is a monument to Peter I against the backdrop of a sailing ship in the port of Arkhangelsk.” And no more details.

In an article in the Trud newspaper dated March 22, 2007 approvedthat before us is the famous hundred-year-old barque "Sedov", listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest traditional sailing ship of our time. However, the real “Sedov” is not at all similar to the object on the banknote. Particularly striking is the presence fourth mast.

On another site, a collector's site, said, that the banknote depicts the three-masted sail-motor schooner “Zapad”. This version is also refuted historians.

What adds piquancy is the absence of a Russian flag when docked in a Russian port, which would be a violation law even for a foreign ship.

If you look closely, you can see changes on the deck of the ship in the latest version (2010). One cabin disappeared and another appeared, other small details changed:

But the ship as a whole, as we see, remains the same. On this occasion, the Bank of Russia in 2013 officially replied to one interested citizen:

“In connection with your request, we inform you that the Bank of Russia 500 ruble banknote of the 2010 modification does not depict any specific sailing ship, but a generalized image. In its design, the artists of FSUE Goznak used images of different sailing ships, trying not to repeat any of them completely.”

It would seem that the issue has been resolved, but it is impossible to pass by the vessel mentioned above “Libertad", a training frigate of the Argentine Navy, launched in 1956 and indeed never been to Russia. In its homeland, the ship has a cult status - for example, in 2013, after misadventures in Africa met 200,000 Argentines. Let's compare the photo of Libertad with the original 500-ruble banknote:

The image speaks for itself: the likelihood of such a coincidence is vanishingly small. Even if we take into account the latest design changes, this will still not be a collective image, but a very specific vessel.

It will help us to finally verify this interview the main artist of Goznak (1989–2002) Igor Krylkov, which he gave in 2011:

“There is no need to look for secret meaning where there is none. In the photograph from which I copied the port, there was a modern steamship. But at the last moment, the Central Bank said that the steamship did not fit in with the general idea of the banknote. I urgently found a photo of that sailboat and redrew it. How was I supposed to know that he didn’t come to Arkhangelsk?”

Thus, the widespread information turned out to be correct - the model for the ship on the Russian banknote was indeed the Argentine sailing ship Libertad.