The Bank of Russia issued a rectangular coin in honour of the first domestic payment card

UFA, 16 December 2015. /Bashinform News Agency, Olga Murtazina/. On December 15, the Bank of Russia has issued five thousand pieces of silver commemorative coins with denomination of three rubles "the first issue of payment cards of the National Payment System of the Russian Federation". The coin has a rectangular shape with length of 51 mm and width of 32 mm with rounded corners. The weight of the precious metal content is 31.1 g, fineness 925, catalog number 5111-0310.

The commemorative coin is dedicated to issuance of the first cards of the "Mir" national payment card system, which took place on December 15. It is planned that in the third quarter of 2016, these cards will be accepted in 90% of the financial institutions of the country.

Creating of its own payment card system has become relevant after the introduction of sanctions against Russia in connection with Crimea accession in March 2014, when the international payment systems «Visa» and «MasterCard» for the second time in history partially stopped servicing cards of several Russian banks.