In case anyone is thinking of bidding, the following two pieces are from the same counterfeit dies ...

http://cgi.ebay.com/1839-Russia-Rouble-Bor...1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Silver-Russian-1Rub-Bo...1QQcmdZViewItem

It is interesting that one of the pieces has artificial wear to make it look authentic.

RWJ

The first one looks bad, but I could be easily fooled by the second.

Tane, the key point is the hair with Alexander I's portrait. So far, most of the copies aren't quite close to the original's hair style. Most counterfeits have, well more like spagetti type whereas a genuine one would be really wavy.

Here are two Borodin rubles that I have, one is a definate fake and the other is probably a genuine but it may be a counterfeit:

The same counterfeit die? That is quite interesting.

I had ANACS authenticate this one with problems (tooling and cleaned) just for comparison. I believe the tooling is around the ear, but I still struggle with the identification of tooled coins. I bought this back several years ago when my enthusiasm would often eclipse my critical eye.

Cleaned or not, if this is the real colour of the coin, I like it!