1895-1899

1912-1913

Composition: Silver 900/000
Weight: 20g
Diameter: 35mm
Mintmasters:
АГ = Apolon Grasgov (1883-1899)
ФЗ = Felix Zahleman (1899-1901)
ЭБ = Elikum Babajants (1899, 1906-1913)
AP = Alexander Redko (1901-1905)
BC = Viktor Smirnov (1913-1917)

These large silver coins were minted in St.Petersburg from 1895 to 1915, in Paris at 1896 and 1898, and in Brussels at 1896, 1897 and 1899. Actually there are many types of this coin, atleast six different portraits were used.
Coins minted in 1900's are generally more difficult to obtain than the older ones.

A cast fake made of tin.

In all of mine, I have one Brussels minted coin. Did Sankt Peterburg just not have the capacity for the coinage during those years, or was it technical or political reasons?

I'm afraid I have no facts about it, only assumings, but I think it has something to do with insufficient capacity of the mint of the SPB. There was apparently a huge need for new coins since they made them a lot in all the three places.

Some copper coins of the same period are known to be made in Birmingham too, but they can't really be distinguished from the russian ones.

If I am not wrong, Russia's early trial coins were made overseas around 1870s or so. But you must remember that Ekaterninburg's technology was just too outdated that Saint Petersburg had to overtake the striking of copper coins, which means that St. Petersburg production lines were not capable of striking both silver, gold and copper at the same time. (geez, that's sure a lot)

Note that the Ekaterninburg mint production last ended at 1876, and in 1890s, there was another currency reform, which probably caused people to hoard as much coins as possible for a brief while. Why Paris and Brussels? I still do not understand up to know though... far less reason why Osaka mint too for the 10 and 15 kopeks of 1916...

The Osaka mint issues are fascinating considering that Russia and Japan have had now 100 yrs of animosity towards one another, but back in 1916 remember that the Russo Japan war of 1905 was still near in the memory and Russia suffered a stinging defeat at the hands of Japan. It must have been remarkable that it was easier to deal with a recent enemy than preferentially going to France or Belgium which were in the throws of WWI.

Paris was quite logical choice, France and Russia were allies and they had good minting technologies. About Brussels I say nothing.

I think that is one of the reasons to mint coins in Osaka was the geography.
It sure must have been easier to transport coins from Osaka to Siberia than from Petrograd to Siberia. Coins of Osaka must have to be intended to circulate in eastern Russia. The train system was used in other purposes during the war.
And since Japan was now an ally, why not?

Only my theory though...

I think you are right that it had more to do with geography than politics. It would be interesting to find out where the Osaka coins were intended to circulate. But perhaps it was even easier logistically to have them shipped to the West of Russia from Japan in Asia, than it was to get them from Paris or some other western city during WWI.

The logistics of shipping anything across Siberia is still daunting, even with a railroad that has recently become double lined, and a widely used air transport system.

Some cities in the Northeast of Siberia have overland roads connecting them with the rest of Russia, but they are only passable during part of the summer months, and of course during winter when everything freezes over. Otherwise everything comes in by ship or aircraft.

I honestly don't know why Osaka though. It's true that both Paris and Brussels were occupied in WWI. The timing of the Osaka kopeks to me is just completely imcomprehensible, or rather, was St. Petersburg mint too overloaded? It's true that by that time, they were forced to stop their gold ruble mintage and Imperial Russia was economically going downhill.

Was ordering such mass coins overseas a lot cheaper than self producing? I guess this is going to be a lot of speculation...

P.S. I think I have found an interesting link worth reading, but you need acrobat reader.

http://www.esh.ed.ac.uk/EH2_RUS/Lecture1.PDF

Paris was not occupied during WWI, but was rather too uncomfortably close to the front lines, and the big guns could be heard in Paris.

At any rate I think it would have been difficult to transport anything to Russia via the western route, ie the Baltic or into the port of Murmansk as was done during WWII.