As much as I wanted to find out more about this provincal series as long as some others like the Armavir, this seems to be quite difficult to find.

All I know is the geography and some history of it and current is part of Russia but not anything about the coinage of why they were struck. I believe they were only struck for one year in 1934.

Tuva: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuva

Appearently there are 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 kopeks (perhaps struck on the same planchets of Soviet coins?)

Pardon my awful Russian but they seem to be struck in the Leningrad mint? http://www.vodyanoyznak.ru/magazine/39-40/762.htm



Complete examples can be seen at this auction site:
http://www.efimok.ru/auctionlot.asp?id=50&idCatAuct=2

Any infomation will be appericated (or someone in this forum owns such example? )

Tannu Tuva was one of those Central Asian places that the Soviets wanted, but not quite. So they set up a puppet republic there in 1924, overprinted Tsarist Russian currency for etc. They did issue the coinage in 1934, and it did actually circulate up until Tannu Tuva was absorbed into the USSR while nobody else noticed in 1944. Unlike the coins, which were in a derivative Cyrillic alphabet, the postage stamps from there seem to have been created mostly for collectors, as for the most part they were issued in a Romanized alphabet.

In essence the coins were struck because this was a semi-independent state in the eyes of the Soviets, but not really in the way we view it in the west, they were little more than a puppet state.

Wow, Tannu Tuva. Been a while since I'd heard about that place. Not many people know about it. I know little bits of the history, but nothing about the coinage. Scottishmoney obviously knows more about it than I do.

Mever seen the money but the stamps look realy good, not your usual run of the mill shapes for that era

I have a pile of them somewhere, now they are pretty valuable at least on eBay. They were not popular with the UPU because of the then different shapes, triangles etc.

Just checked my 3 kop and it's the same diameter and weight as the contemporary russian 3 kop but the edge is a bit different (my russian coin is from 1928, it could have been some changes to the edge later on), its actually much more similar to the Spitzbergen (Artikugol) 10 kop coin (1946) edge.

Jose

I might need GX to confirm, but I am pretty sure they were minted by Goznak in what was then Leningrad. They sure have the look and feel of then contemporary Soviet coins.

Scottishmoney, the history of Goznak seems to be more confusing that what I thought. Here is a historical event from the Goznak site:

http://www.goznak.ru/main.php?page=4

From what I see, Goznak was initially a paper printing company but it was only during WWII that Leningrad Mint became part of Goznak and Moscow "Mint" only appeared much later in 1942 as it only made jewelleries, watches etc but never struck coins until later. Moscow Mint only engaged in striking coins during the Olympic event and after as Leningrad Mint couldn't handle the excess striking and gold coins became a speciality for Moscow Mint.

I am somewhat viewing the striking of both the Spitzbergen and Tannu Tuva coinages in Leningrad Mint although I haven't come across any material other than what is mentioned on websites.

Actually, what is Goznak? I thought Moscow and Leningrad Mint are subsiduries of Goznak

I don't know much about Tannu Tuva except they have a close ethnic ties to the people of Mongolia. In fact, up until 1921, Tannu Tuva was part of Mongolia. Between 1921 and 1944, Tuva was a semi-independent state with strong backing by the Soviet government. In 1944, Tuva was absorbed into the USSR, and made an autonomous republic. As for coins and notes from the region, Tuva had one year types which were dated 1934 . Tuva had three different series of banknotes. First were Russian imperial notes with revalidation stamp marks written in Mongol script. They're supposed to be issued in 1924 in denominations of 1,3,5, and 10 Lan notes. However, the authenticty of these notes is questionable. The second and third issues, were official notes in both 1935 and 1940 series. The 1935 series, has an overall simple design showing a map of the country, denomination, date and other text markings. The 1940 series is similar to previous, except it shows a farmer plowing a field on all the notes. The denominations for the second and third series are 1,3,5,10, and 25 Aksha notes. Notes from the first series are cheap if you can find them, where as the second and third series are very expensive starting at $200 (US) in low grade.

Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment
Tannu Tuva 15 Kopejek 1934

I'm not sure if what I have found will help you GX, I was wondering about this also since I have found that TUVA was mentioned under Russia at World Coin Galery.

Here is a link to 3 Kopek Coin :
http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/nmc/tan-3.jpg
and for the main site:
http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/Russia.html surely you familiar with

Also 1 Kopek (not mine):
http://i7.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/eb/45/6793_1.JPG
http://i7.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/eb/45/6768_1.JPG

I have read in Wiki that 1 akşa the currency of Tuva between 1934 and 1944 was subdivided into 100 k (=Soviet ruble?). Coins were issued in 1934 in denominations between 1 and 20K (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 kopejek). Why only in 1934!? what happened to Tuva?

What this page meens? http://www.iwantallcoins.com/256.HTM

Hope that helped a bit
TQ

Another one sold at conors for about 150$
20 Kopeek