The story
From Russian черво́нец (červónec), derived from черво́нное зо́лото (červónnoje zóloto), "red gold".
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
chervonets
Today it means: Any of several former currencies of Russia: applied to various foreign gold coins prior to the reign of Peter I of Russia, then to a Russian gold coin of 1701-1757, and finally to a 1922 currency of the Soviet Union. Full definition →