Click to view attachment Am posting the reverse views of a 1757 kopek and a 1758 kopek. Would like your educated opinions. I see overstrikes but cannot determine the undercoins. If you say that I am seeing something where there is nothing .. my feelings won't be hurt.

Click to view attachmentAnd the 1758

I think the 1757 could be struck over a Swedish öre coin. (something like this one: http://swedishcoins.net/egna/fi/5.jpg )

Congrats, Mike! The first one is definite. you can see the fletches of the arrow, from the crossed arrows of the Swedish Ore, just above the head of the horse!

The second, there is something there, also at the head of the horse, do you have a higher res scan? Could be a digit from the date, maybe a 6? as in 1746 or 1756? Do you have scans of the reverses? Nice catches!

I see what looks like it might be the remains of a large crown on the 1757 near the horse's head. But the "crown" (if that is what it is) seems to have straight up & down edges rather than the tapered or curved edges of the crowns on the Swedish coin.

Better images both sides and wight will help .

I see it now. The "crown" I thought I saw was actually the feathers of an arrow.

like this, but could be either arrow.

Click to view attachmentThe obverse

the otherClick to view attachment

closeupsClick to view attachment

Click to view attachmentand this ?

Is it possible to get pictures/scans in higher resolution? It's hard to really see very much in these images.

Sorry .. My scanner was state of the art 5 years ago .. don't even own a scale.. I need to update and will do .. mike

Mike, you can try to increase the DPI to the maximum your scanner can handle. Try 600dpi if possible.

I'm very certain that it's an overstruck Swedish kopek. Congratulations!

Great overstruck over Swedish Ore. Congratulations

Thank you all for the help. I am learning so much from you. As an 'Ugly copper" person .. I still have a lot to learn .. mike

For a guy with a lot to learn, you are making some rather astute additions to your collection.

I wonder how the grading service would slab this coin? It is just an honest, well circulated, intact, and extremely rare coin. Would it come back ungraded? Would they recognize it for what it is?

I would expect the grading services to call the kopek a Moscow Subway Token. Maybe even Proof. Thanks again. mike

I would sent in a few of my overstruck coins but they are problematic coins so to ANACS. Imagine how they have to label three different years on them and the mintmark like this one



1759 2kopeks over 1755 MMD 1 kopek over 1727 5 kopeks

8 kopek coin

Sssshhhh! Don't you know the TPGs are experts in such matters?

In MS-61.423675

GX .. nice coin. Only a mother could love .. in this case we UGLY COPPER GUYS love it.

Mike, just keep up with what you can find. Trust me, finding an overstruck Swedish coin is so difficult, not even everyone on this forum has one. I was just plain lucky that the other bidders didn't notice what they are looking at and I got it absurdly cheap, probably way under 30USD. People would call me a liar LOL If you managed to find it in a junk box, even better! Hope you didn't use up your beginner's luck.

Again identifying what the underlying image is a different matter. Some may claim that because the design is so ugly, it's worth less but I don't think so. Depending on what the underlying image is, how clear it is as well as the condition, eye appeal, etc, it all adds up to the dollars that we see these days.

A challenge is to find an overstruck 1724 kopek which is really difficult. An easier one is the 1731-5 polushka overstruck over 1728 kopek. In fact I think there are little literature written about the overstruck Swedish ore - I have only seen Spassky briefly mentioning about it but nothing much in detail. I'm sure there are more surprises waiting to be found. Probably out of the entire overstruck copper coins that I know, the 1795 MM kopeks (1,2, 5) are extremely notorious to find. The 1763-7 CM 5 kopeks is still a mystery of whether they were indeed overstruck or not.

Do check my collection Mike on omnicoin. You aren't the only one collecting ugly copper - I've got them in crusts, holes, dents etc... what else do you want? Coins that have been through blasting?

Best of luck