The following specimen does not look good to me:

http://cgi.ebay.com/18c-Russian-Imperial-S...1QQcmdZViewItem

This seller was the subject of an earlier discussion on coinpeople with certain of his coins:

http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?showtopic=11478

Note that the description for the current offering is virtually identical to his last sales.

RWJ

It looks like it was just made yesterday. I think it probably was.

The seller says "I do not have enough experience identify coin." but identifies it by country, year, denomination and ruler.

Oddly, the coin is identified as "999' Silver", which is very interesting because genuine silver roubles of this period were of somewhat lower fineness.

I guess selling "estate" coins on ebay can be a lucrative business.

I think I know why "The sale is final."

The hair looks wrong, also the eye and some elements of armor. The “coin” looks stamped, not cast. Reminds of recent forgeries of 1729 foxface – same feel to it. The overall quality is amazing, don’t you think? This scares me a bit. Soon, they will get it right, and the fakes will be very hard to spot.

Scary indeed it is. All they need to do is to perhaps circulate it with some other batch of well-circulated coins and "mature" it. Recipe for the perfect wine