Hi all,
This auction caught my eye today, and I was surprised to see the quick bid up over $3,000. What is the going price range for these today?
Brent

eBay link

And while I am at it, here is a rouble I picked up last month that I thought I would share.

I like that 1880 rouble! Hope it didn't cost you an arm and a leg, as everything after 1878 of that type is fairly scarce.

As to the 1723 Peter I rouble, it seems to be Bitkin 890 or 891 (variety with large St. Andrew's cross) depending on the reverse die pattern. Rarity is given as "R2". Looks to me like Bitkin 890.

As to prices of other roubles of this year, there were a handful sold at the last NY Sale of Dmitri Markov, but of other varieties. You should still be able to download the catalog or view it online as well as the "prices realised" list. The 1723 roubles were also of similar grade, and estimates ranged from $750 for choice VF up to $5,000 for an unlisted die pair variety in XF. So if the coin is indeed genuine, the price probably isn't out of line considering how high prices of Russian coins in general have skyrocketed even within the last two or three years. Even Bitkin lists the prices for both of these varieties in XF at $3,000.

However, I honestly find this coin to be overgraded -- I would give it a VF-30, but there is just too much wear to warrant an XF-40, IMHO.

The lot numbers of the 1723 roubles in the NY sale began with 1105, BTW -- forgot to include that in my previous post.

Thanks for the reply. I see it is now in the $4,500 range, so the seller should be happy. Like you, I also questioned the grade, but now that I look at it again with fresh eyes, I believe the grade is likely justified. The obverse detail warrants the grade, and I would attribute the VF reverse to a weak strike.

Regarding the 1880, it cost an arm, but I still seem to have one arm left. I had sold a few coins and had the funds available, so I decided to take the plunge.

I don't know ... there are two 1723 roubles shown in the PDF catalog of the NY sale which are graded XF, 1105 and 1106. 1107 is graded "choice very fine" and 1108 is "good very fine" (none of these are slabbed, however). All but the last seem to have much more detail in Peter's hair than the eBay coin does. I think the eBay coin is only slightly better than the "good VF" of lot 1108.

I am far from an expert, so you are probably correct. It would be interesting to see how the roubles in the NY sale would grade out from a third party grading company like NGC or PCGS. Not having pics of the NY sale roubles in front of me, is it possible that Markov grades the raw coins conservatively just to be on the safe side?

Well, I'm certainly nobody's idea of an expert, either. Interestingly enough, Mr. Markov's slabbed coins are mostly graded by NGC with some PCGS as well ... I cannot recall any other grading company being mentioned in his catalogs. These two companies seem to enjoy the best reputation of all among collectors, with NGC having a slight edge on world coins and PCGS on U.S. American coins.

However, once a coin is somewhat scarce, there is a tendency with all TPGCs (3rd party grading companies) to give "market grades" instead of "technical grades", and I suppose this holds true for rare Russian coins as well as any other types. I wouldn't call Mr. Markov's grading lenient by any means, but certainly not more conservative than those two TPGC's mentioned above.

I bought a nice 1895-АГ 50-kopek piece from that last auction of his (lot# 1581) which was graded AU-58 by NGC. I cannot prove it, but I believe the very same coin was offered for auction (but not sold) a year or two ago. At least there was the same year and mintmark poltina, also graded AU-58 by NGC, offered for sale. In the previous catalog, there was a comment such as "NGC AU-58; but we would grade this coin as uncirculated" or something like that. This comment was removed in the 2006 auction. Holding the coin in hand, I believe that AU-58 was the more appropriate grade -- then again, I have no way of knowing for sure whether or not it was the same coin (you can see mine here: My 1895-АГ poltina)

I don't see why there cannot be a universal standard for determining things such as wear, mint luster, etc. After all, there are uncirculated examples of coins of just about any year and type in existence for comparison's sake, and the metal composition of the different coin types hasn't changed too much in the last 300-400 years...

Nice coin . Still see some red in w/ the brown the coin was well preserved.. I also see older russian coins on the rise

These roubles are scarce because after Ruso-Turkish war 1877-1878, when Russian army paid for supplies in Romania only in silver (and less in gold) an amount of over 8.5 million roubles, the silver of these coins was the base for emission of romanian coins of 5 Lei 1880-1885. More exactly, the Russian army paid 34,575,800 Lei at the exchange rate of 4 Lei / 1 Rouble. Romania had no silver mines at that time...

Very interesting ... do you mean that the silver roubles were melted down in Romania to mint the 5 Lei coins?
Thank you ... I learned something new today!

More than 10 grand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yikes! And that's with about 90 minutes to go (as I write this). The snipers are probably still hiding in the bushes.

I'm aghast at the prices these days!

Winning bid: US $10,877.00 !!!

With a well-known dealer as the underbidder!

I'm shocked really...

and the funny part is: I just got off the phone with a collector who was going to bid much more for it. He overslept. Otherwise the price tag would be evn higher.

I did not want to comment on this rouble before the auction's end -- who knows maybe one of you is the seller But this is what I think:

1. Coin has been washed (chemically cleaned) Probably MS70 or some other stuff (read: godawfulcrap). See the off-color spots?

2. It is overgraded -- look at the hair and the crowns on obverse -- VF 30(35 maybe) This is not only my opinion, by the way.

3. It is not worth more than $6000 on any day of the week.

If it were really in XF40 -- the price tag should have been in the vacinity of $13,000. The price tag comes with rarity -- large cross on chest, you know, is hard to find.

As to "well-known dealer" -- he should really take it easy. He already has a 1707 and a Family rouble from Japan he cannot sell. Bidding against Moscow dealers... who do you sell it to if you win? The fact that Russian material is going up in price does not mean that you can turn profit overnight. Will probobly have to sit on it for a while...