Catherine II 5 kopek coins, if not hockey pucks are massive coins that is prone to the typical copper parasite. The mass of each coin is around 50grams or 1.6oz

Recently these days, prices of these coins are going pretty high, especially for XF and UNC, that is if you can find them. But I wonder if the prices are starting to go a bit faster than what I would expect:

Link

Indeed they used to be unappericated in the past, but at that price, I really wonder if it is starting to go a bit too high I cannot predict the prices of Russian coins these days...

I don't know that I would grade the 1785 as XF, but the 1793 coin looks very nice to me. You can still find these a little cheaper, though. For example, here is one which looks like it has even more detail than either of the other two coins:
1781-EM 5 kopeek

I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Russian coins have not moved equally upward. Certainly most of the copper coins have not jumped in price to the same degree that some other Russian coins have.

Maybe they are overdue for price increases.

Certainly the copper coins are popular, circulated more freely than those in precious metals and I think there are some collectors who would argue that a copper coin in choice condition is a more significant find than a nice silver coin.

And, when you think about it, compared to nice US, British or Australian copper coins, maybe the prices for attractive Russian copper coins aren't really so outrageous after all.

I certainly agree that the rapid price changes for Russian coins in recent years have been confusing and at times it has been difficult to know what is a fair price to pay for things. More than a few times, I have been genuinely shocked by prices realized at auction. Sometimes I have wondered if this was just hot money coming into the market looking for a quick buck, that might one day just as quickly leave again to go into real estate, the futures market or beanie babies.

On the other hand, Russia has long been a country with an established tradition of private coin collecting which was not encouraged under Communist rule. So it might be reasonable to argue that prices for Russian coins were artificially low for almost a century and are just making up for lost time.

Maybe it's a bit of both.

It's a confusing situation and I think it might be a while before some sort of supply and demand equilibrium is achieved and prices stabilize.

I am glad I took care of my hockey puck addiction back when I could get these things for a pittance. They are kind of fun to stack up and play with, and pretend you are going to the market to purchase Kvas with them.

Don't tell me you actually like drinking that stuff...

Funnily enough, I have learned how to drink Kvas and enjoy it. What was even better was the black bread and you have it toasted in a bit of butter and drink it with Kvas

Now I miss EVERY single element of that

I love Kvas, there is no other beverage like it. It is one of those things you either like or hate, no in between. I can get it in Russian stores, but it is about a 200km drive to the nearest one. So when I buy it, and Baltika I buy in quantity.




Good stuff, but remember I was born in the wrong country. I was meant to be Russian.

Black bread ... ... now you've hit my weak spot! But I prefer mine with vodka... na zdorove!

Once you have Russian bread, American bread forever more tastes like paste.

Fortunately, most of the larger grocery stores in American cities of any size have "deli" sections which have better baked goods -- the Dominic's store in Chicago (close to where my father-in-law used to live) had freshly-baked Russian black bread in their deli, as there is a large Russian and Ukrainian immigrant population there (also from the Baltic countries).

When my father-in-law was still alive, we used to fly into Chicago from Zurich and call a cab or limo to pick us up at O'Hare airport and drive us to his house in the city. Nine times out of ten, the driver would be Ukrainian or Russian (maybe once in a while Lithuanian or Latvian -- once it was an Armenian), and I could practice my Russian while riding into town. The drivers were usually quite pleasantly surprised to encounter a "native" who could speak their language at all, although somewhat haltingly.

I must confess, that not being able to find Kvas in Europe, and never having had it in Russia, the only Kvas I ever tried was the brew I made myself once. But I had an authentic Russian recipe to go by, and I used the Russian bread from Dominic's in Chicago to make it with. I must have screwed up somewhere, though.

Now this whole conversation has become black bread

Honestly the painful part of living in the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere is that there isn't such thing as black bread. There probably is but I never tried to find them.

Speaking of which, did anyone ever remember the auction with 226x 5 kopek coins sold at a lot? Never knew if it got sold. Now imagine the possiblity of what you can find in there, especially the illusive TM mintmark and some rarer overstriked coins!

KBAC is good! I remember large barrels mounted into dump tracks at street corners in Kiev selling fresh cold kvas at 2-3 kopeks/quarter liter... Here in some villages still you can find "braga" - an traditional Turkish drink which is very similar to kvas. Deep brown, unclear liquid and an inconfundable taste... and extremely cheap. "Ieftin ca braga" (Cheap as braga) is an old expression for things underevaluated in Romanian language.

I am truly sorry, gxseries ... ... my fault for drifting so far off-topic.
[ We could try discussing blinis; they are somewhat more coin-shaped! ]


I remember the auction ... I think someone eventually did bid on it. But that collection wasn't advertised as having any rare coins in it, was it? (can't remember myself)