Hi all,

I was looking for 1/2 kopek coins from 1921 and up can some one help me with this coin?
When it was structed? whitch years? are there different 1/2 kopek coins in each year?

importent for me is how much the 1/2 kopek coins costs? for each year it was structed.
I want to buy these coins and I want to have an idea of how much this coins should costs me?

while I was looking for the 1/2 kopek coin I cam accross this title at ebay:
*RUSSIA 1/2 KOPEKS 1935 UNC T473*
I was wondering about this coin and I clicked the link to see the coin and I have found this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=330221922887

I would be glad to know more about the 1/2 kopek that were structed starting 1921 (not sure about the year), any HiRes picture would be helpfull and technical and Numesmatical information also

thank you all in advanced
TQ

The link has been repaired in the quote above.

The ebay auction, despite the title, shows a 1935 20 kopeks coin and that is presumably what is being offered.

Others here can probably give you a better answer, but I believe the USSR half kopek was issued to the standard of the old Tsarist coin (as part of Lenin's New Economic Policy or "NEP") and so should be 1.6 grams of copper.

See post #10 here for more information concerning the NEP and the coins issued under it.

Thank you for helping me out and fixing my link to ebay.

I would be glad to have more information about the 1/2 kopek from 192x and above.
I want to buy these coins for my collection and I need to know how much should I pay for each coin of 1/2 kopek?

I'm also looking for information about the coin such as :Alloy, Observe and Reverse ,Diameter and also all Numesmatic information on this coin and why this coin was structed and there are no new 1/2 kopeks these days?

thanks again
TQ

Thanks for all reply in this subject would help me alot

The last Tsarist half-kopek was struck in 1916.

The half-kopek was not struck again until under the Soviet government and then only for 3 years, 1925, 1927 & 1928. It was struck in copper, 16 mm diameter, weight 1.64 grams, with reeded edge.

The design is very simple, just text with the "Workers of the world, unite!" slogan surrounding CCCP (USSR). On the other side it says "pol-kopek" (rather than the older "denga" or "denezhka").

I don't know why such a low-value coin was struck and then only for 3 years. Perhaps it served the function of the cent today - useful only for paying sales taxes that result in final prices like $1.02 or something similar but otherwise of no practical use.

grivna thank you very much,

you have given me almost all the information that I needed
if you, or anybody else on this forum, have a good picture of the 1/2 kopek (Hi Res) I would be glad to see it, and also a good link to information about the coin would be great.

Thanks
TQ

You're welcome. BTW, MiM (auction 45) offered one of each date (1925, 1927 & 1928) with weights of 1.65g, 1.70g and 1.64g respectively, so it appears the weights can vary somewhat from the official 1.64g weight for these.

Here's one I found on Molotok.ru ... LINK

Thank you very very much grivna!!!!!

wooow!!! that a realy good picture of the coin - I can almost feel it in my hands
you have given me all the info I needed - thanks a lot!

Now all I need is to get all the trio and add them to my collection

grivna - do you collect coins from Russia?

Thanks
best regards,
TQ

You're welcome.

Yes, I collect Russian coins, mostly 18th century but also 19th, with a few stray Soviet coins.

This is my only example that I have:



Not the best but it's getting harder to find these days.

In the early Soviet copper, I don't have this type, only the 1924 kopek. I do have some of the later stuff.

Thank you gxseries

I have collected your wonderful HiRes picture along with grivna's great picture and both would be help me a great deal with my work about Russian/Soviet Coins from 1921 untill today.

Each day I'm learning somthing new - That what makes coin collecting a wonderful hobby
I have just learned about Russian History so much and all of these because of my intrests in Russian coins.

gxseries - Why it is hard to find 1/2 kopek these days? is it only the 1927 coin or all 1/2 kopeks? do you know how much 1/2 kopek coin should cost, roughly?

Thanks for helping me
best regards
TQ

Such half kopek these days rarely go any under 20USD. I did remember paying over 20USD for that awful coin. You got to understand that there weren't too many of those in the first place but demand of such 1/2 kopeks aren't that big yet other than high grade which has been commanding high premium these days. That said, I should update my homepage as it's just old

For some unknown reason this coin is still less expensive in Russia that overseas (ebay in particular)... I was lucky to purchase one on local coin bazaar for around $6 in XF condition during my trip to Central Russia late December...

That is an interesting observation.

Could it be that this price inversion on the USSR polkopek is because the early non-silver Soviet business strikes (i.e. the copper coins) are more easily found in Russia than in the West?

When I first saw Uzdenikov's book (1985 first edition), I was puzzled by some of his rarity ratings. For example, Peter I gold 2 roubles coins were typically rated as very rare to extremely rare, yet they seemed to appear for sale in Western auctions fairly regularly.

And some copper coins (like the 1714-НДД kopek) were rated as merely scarce, yet I would almost never see this coin offered for sale despite my searching for it (even Brekke did not have this coin in his collection).

My speculation is that Uzdenikov's rarity ratings were based on what could be found in the USSR, while my perceptions of rarity were based on what I saw in the West.

Given the war and chaos in Russia after 1917, it seems to me that those Russians fleeing to the West, perhaps leaving under emergency conditions, would not be able to take everything with them. If taking a coin collection, it seems reasonable that collectors might take their gold coins while leaving behind their bulkier copper coins (unless the copper coins were rarities).

So, gold coins might mostly end up in the West, while less intrinsically valuable items (like the 1714-НДД kopek) might mostly be left behind, creating very different impressions of rarity depending on whether you were inside or outside Soviet territory.

Of course, I might be wrong and I have no proof that this is what happened, but it seems like a reasonable explanation to me.

Grivna, there might be another reason that local people might be under an impression that coins overseas are cheaper than local. And as well as, being in central Russia, it's not a huge market for coin buyers. Who would exactly in the right mind travel there JUST to buy coins? (unless one is on the hunt on rare coins...)