Well, I think with all that phony junk floating around, I've developed a case of paranoia. I bought this coin, but I can't stand it. It feels all wrong to me. The seller offered money back, but assured me that in his opinion it is 100% genuine. I took it to a local coin store, they felt funny about it but could not tell me anything concrete. I got it a couple of days ago, and as I took it out of the envelope I just thought it was fake. To begin with it is way too light 3.62 grams. Lettering radiates at the edges in a strange way (imho). Edge has strange sections on it. But these are all my subjective impressions, maybe the weight is off due to wear, I'm no big expert and maybe I'm wrong all over. One of the strangest things, and what I noticed last, is that catalogs that I have indicate that this year the coin should have the newer design!?

I ask the respected members to weigh in, if you say I'm wrong I will keep it. Here are the pictures:

I don't think it's real. The obverse lettering looks wrong (too large) and also this is the 1766-1776 portrait, not the 1781 portrait.

There is no doubt that it is bad but the photographs are very useful. Probably the forgers got their dies
mixed up and the obverse will eventually be seen with a proper reverse date.

RWJ

That's what I thought, but the seller's apparent (and unexpected due to my past eBay experiences) honesty, made me hope that this is some sort of a rare Novodel. According to Bitkin they mixed up the dies for the 1782 Novodel.

I still think it looks bad but you may be right. There is an oddity about this piece
in that it appears to be an overdate, 1781/177–. The date is very crude. however,
which does speak against it being genuine.

RWJ

- this is becoming my favorite emoticon, I will put it on my family crest!

This coin is fishy from top to bottom, but it has very puzzling elements. I do find that planchet crack very convincing, also 2 die cracks, and a neat scratch on the portrait!

But can you comment on the edge? That short section that faces the camera has very frequent edge marks. The last time I've seen this detail it was on a Siberian 5 kop that was cast out of lead (I guess), it weighed x1.5 what it should.

The edge appears to be more or less normal but I will leave any further comments
to those who are better informed about edges than I am.

My only suggestion here would be to examine the edge carefully to see if the wear
is in line with the surfaces of the coin (obverse and reverse). In June 1994 at the
St. Petersburg Coin Fair I purchased a Siberian 5 kopecks, which seemed perfectly
normal, for the low price of only 50 roubles (U.S. 50 cents). Later I looked at it more
carefully and found that the forgers had forgotten to smooth down the edge in a
couple of places.

RWJ

No, the rest of the edge looks ok, worn. I checked some other coins I have, and some have that frequent edging as well, I guess the edging went over 360 degrees.