bobh Posted September 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2009 I'm not sure about this. The appraisal by Shiryakov does mention some visible luster on the coin. Does that suggest that the coin has not really been worn that much, and we should see some signs of it being a proof strike (if it were)? Normally, I would think so. But I somehow get the impression that the question was never raised in Mr. Shiryakov's mind when he wrote the expertise. And until now, I only read the "proof only" bit in the Kazakov book -- although I'm sure that I heard it somewhere else as well (perhaps from RW Julian?) Bitkin lists prices for both proof and regular strikes; Severin doesn't make any distinction, and neither does Uzdenikov. The Krause-Mishler catalog however, interestingly enough, does list "proof only" for 1898; Adrianov lists both. If there were any regular strikes for this year, one would expect to see some mintage numbers reflecting this fact in either the U.S. Mint report or the corresponding Russian mint report for that year (or issue, since we have to take into consideration the fiscal year and not the calendar year here). Yet as far as I know, there were no mintage figures for 50 kopeek in those reports. No record of mintage figures for proof issues was kept, although the number 19 is known (somehow) for the equally rare 1903 50 kopeek -- which is also a proof-only issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexbq2 Posted November 12, 2009 Report Share Posted November 12, 2009 What do you think of this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted November 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2009 What do you think of this one? The image hosting server seems to be down at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexbq2 Posted November 12, 2009 Report Share Posted November 12, 2009 works now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted November 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2009 works now! Thanks, alexbq2 -- I saved the image to my laptop in case the server goes down again. I'll take a closer look tonight at home where I can look at some other images and compare them. I wonder what happened to the obverse denticles at 6 o'clock, though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altyn Posted November 13, 2009 Report Share Posted November 13, 2009 It is noteworthy that the topic starter at a Russian forum where this coin is discussed still has not posted an image of the edge. Probably not without a reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted November 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2009 I'm not sure, but I believe this one started life as an 1896 ... there are suspicious-looking spots to the left and at the top of the eight. At any rate, I would never buy such a rare coin merely by looking at such horrible pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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