The article deals with the historiography of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the matters of paper money functioning in money circulation system on Ukrainian lands under control of the Russian empire in the pre-reform period. The researchers’ views on the significance and consequences of the introduction of banknotes into the cash circulation, the reform activities of the authorities to overcome the crisis phenomena, the introduction of deposit and credit notes, and their subsequent existence were highlighted. It was established that during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the fundamental researches on the history of circulation of paper money in the empire were conducted. From the middle of the 18th century the first paper money had been gradually introduced into circulation and was named banknotes. Subsequently, they were replaced by deposit and credit bills. One of the first scholars to pay attention to this issue was Y.I. Lamansky in 1854. Afterwards, a thorough study was carried out in 1866 by V. Goldman, who divided the history of banknotes circulation into four periods. In 1868 P. Shtorh in the materials on the history of the empire’s money described in detail the circulation of not only banknotes but also deposit bills and credit bills; he also revealed the history of the circulation of special paper money - bills of the state auxiliary bank for the nobles that had been in circulation during 1798- 1812. In 1892 the research of P.A. Nikolsky, where he criticized some of the statements of other researchers of the history of money circulation was published. In 1898 a historical and statistical research of the money of the Russian Empire was conducted by M.P. Kashkarov It is difficult to overestimate the scientific accomplishments of A. Guriev, when in 1903 he published a fundamental work on the system of money circulation of the empire from ancient times to the end of the nineteenth century. In general, imperial historiography is full of factual material; many researchers were contemporaries of some monetary reforms. In addition to general imperial information, the authors also pointed to the peculiarities of paper money circulation in various parts of the empire, including Ukrainian lands

banknotes; money circulation; ring coin, deposit bills; credit bills; historiography