Alaskan Vendors Bank on Goodwill, Not Rubles

A sign posted on the doors of half a dozen Nome businesses depicts a handshake and reads, in English and Russian, “We accept many rubles.”

The problem so far has been getting rid of them.

“There’s been no monetary benefit so far--it’s like Monopoly money,” said Greg Higashi, owner of Nome Liquor & Grocery, who has accepted more than 5,000 rubles in about nine months from visitors from across the Bering Strait.

“But we did it for good will, not profits. And we’re hoping that maybe when it does open up in Russia that we can exchange them for merchandise or whatever.”

Soviet officials have said the ruble could become convertible on the international market within a couple of years as part of the transition to a market economy. But for many Nome merchants, the pace of Soviet reform has been frustratingly slow.

In the first nine months of their neighborly grass-roots experiment in monetary exchange, Nome merchants have sold thousands of dollars in goods and services to Soviet visitors.

In return, they have gotten 30,000 virtually worthless rubles they can neither spend nor invest. Some shopkeepers have found only one use for the Soviet bills: They sell them to American tourists as souvenirs.

The merchants hope that by accepting rubles they will encourage freer trade and travel across the Bering Strait, forming new friendships and eventually new markets for Alaskans.

The Soviet government sets the ruble’s value artificially, apart from the market fluctuations that determine other currencies’ values. It is illegal in most cases to take rubles out of the Soviet Union. But many Soviet travelers to Nome do bring rubles with them, merchants say.