Institutul de Finanţare Externa Currency & Banknote Values

The Institutul de Finanţare Externa series of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the World Currency contains 6 distinct entries.

Romania joined the World War II Axis Powers on 23 November 1940, when it signed the Tripartite Pact, and took part in the German invasion of the USSR on 22 June 1941. On 19 August 1941, Ion Antonescu, Conducător (Prime Minister) of Romania, issued Decree 1 that established a Romanian civil administration over a large area in the southwest of the Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic between the Dniester and Bug rivers, including Odessa. Shortly thereafter, in an agreement of 30 August 1941, the Germans gave the Romanian government a temporary mandate to operate in the region, which came to be known as the Trans-Dniester Governate.

Shortly after the Trans-Dniester Governate was created, German, Romanian, and Soviet currency all circulated in parallel. It is thought that, at this time, the Institutul de Finanţare Externa (Institute of External Funding, IFE), also abbreviated INFINEX, was created by the Romanian government in order to produce notes for circulation in the Trans-Dniester Governate. However, Romanian authorities could not supply sufficient lei and, by Decree 3 of 29 August 1941, the administration of the Trans-Dniester Governate ruled the only valid currency to be the German reichmark. It is therefore presumed that Institutul de Finanţare Externa banknotes were never issued. By a further decree, Decree 24 of 21 November 1941, Soviet currency and Romanian lei were both prohibited. Romanian forces had withdrawn from the Trans-Dniester Governate by the end of March 1944 and Soviet Red Army forces entered Odessa on 19 April 1944.

The Pick cross-references in this section are from the Romania chapter of the SCWPM.