I recently saw several pieces (1993 Wildlife Series Russian Bear w/Cub) selling, then these pieces went through the roof. Later I found the 4 coin gold and silver proof set, and the single 200 rouble proof and the owner would not sell the pieces for the listed prices on the site. Later he set me a notice that the both items would be listed on ebay in October.

Are these coins that rare?

You must refer to 1995 Bear with cub 100 rouble silver coin. With super low mintage of just 500 (yes, five hundred) I bet you would be interested to know that Moscow street price is 4,000 US dollars. So Ebay is a relatively cheap place to buy Russian coins, as shocking as it sounds.

Mad pricing isn't suprising these days - there are plenty of Russians who are already driving the prices up and up and up. Now you just wish it would collapse one day but that's not going to happen any day soon.

what goes up must come down!!! usually lol

so, we wont be seeing these bear/cubs for sale on the home shopping cable tv channel?

If you are looking to obtain something that has a bear with cub, you might want to consider this:



It is a huge 5 oz silver medal. I got it at bullion value when silver was just under 10USD (yes sounds ridicious doesn't it? )

Now the minimum price I see this medal at is at least 120USD, or last I remember seeing some time ago...

There was one on eBay in August that sold for $147.50 with a deep cut over the knuckles of the clasped hand.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...y0%3D%26fvi%3D1

This is the kind of prices you expect to see - I don't agree with it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=230157693746

The coins that I was discussing were:

1993 Wildlife Series Russian Bear w/Cub 200 Rouble Gold Proof Coin, Composition: .999 Pure Gold, Gold Weight: 31.1 Grams

1993 Wildlife Series, 4 Coin Russian Bear, Gold & Silver Proof Set, Gold 100 (15.55 gms), 50 (7.775 gms) & 25 Roubles (3.11 grms), and a Silver 3 (31.1 grms) roubles

Both the individual proof coin and the proof set sold for over $4K.

Looks like PandaAmerica bought them

$13,950.00 (about 10 times melt!!) seems like a rather hefty premium for a modern mint product. I know the Russian market is hot, but it still seems rather steep for something that was never intended to circulate as money (and never did).

I heard that MAXimum price for all those beauties in Russia is around 8k... so "Panda" is looking to the future in 6-8 years