Well, the seller says it is an original. This is not even a good copy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RUSSIA-ORIGINAL-1834-1...1QQcmdZViewItem

Some of the other Russian material offered by this seller appears to be genuine, but most does not.

RWJ

Definately is a bad one.

Julian, BKB, WCO or others, can you please do me a favor and give me your opinions on these ones? I am getting paranoid over the increasing alarm of counterfeited commemorative rubles.

The two 1834 Alexander I column roubles are so close to known genuine pieces that it is very difficult to be certain from photos; I do not see any differences except that the first piece appears to have a raised dot in the lower right field that I do not recall seeing elsewhere. There does seem to be different distances between the lettering and the dentils on the two pieces but this could be due to lapping (grinding) the dies.

RWJ

I have now examined several better quality photographs for the 1834 Alexander rouble and, as far as can be determined at present, there was only one pair of dies used. The attached view of a section of the obverse should match exactly any suspect coin with respect to the lettering and the dentils. That a coin matches does not prove authenticity, however, as high-quality cast pieces may exist.

RWJ

Thank you Julian for the image and the explaination.



Both of them don't look too convincing, do they?

By the way, is this a sign of counterfeit too? I don't remember seeing such odd dots in between the dentils.