I fell off my chair literally when I saw these coins - these rarely get reported in catalogues and much rarer in auctions.

Yes, appearently these coins seemed to be only reported in 2000, which is quite recent and it is only up to now that these coins are surfaced up for auction.

Rus auction link



You can click on page 3, and you can see the rare trial 5 ruble coins too... my god... a real pity that these coins didn't make it.

Now... would anyone like to lend me 15 grand to get one of those trial 200 rubles? No such denomination were ever minted in the whole Soviet history and the denomination 200 rubles appeared from time to time in one ounce gold coins minted after 1991.

Why Russian probes are so expensive? Romanian probes from 1920's are at maximum 500$, and I saw them more rarely than these communist ones...

Maybe the prices are controlled by the Russian Mafia?

But yes, these were only reported in 2000, which is just 5 years ago...