BKB

A nice error coin... :-)

count me in too As to the point I was trying to make: any opinion has a right to existence.

rare, shmere -- I wonder how many on this forum have this variety? If you look hard enough, you can find 5 different Konstantin ruble + novodels sold in the last 100 years (or make that 18 or so sales in total), and you do not need 5 days to go through the catalogs. Does that mean that it is a common coin? :-)

If I were you, I would not try to buy it for less, I would just buy it and thank the seller. If you buy it, I would buy it from you for more $. Go ahad and make a quick buck. I never said you can ship it out of Russia. I said you will mail it inside Russia.

Do not worry, you will mail it to a Russian address.

If you are selling, I will buy it.

P.S. Saw the coin yesterday in person. It is very nice, -- much nicer than the photos. Does not look like it was dug up from the ground. The fields are amazing. Now I would not only buy the Conros piece, but this one as well. If ever offered to me, that is... :-)

Actually I am very happy that Mr. One bought this coin and showed it to us. Just a thought -- he could buy it and not show to anyone. Who would win?

I do not have one. And I want it! I have been collecting these for a long time. I must have some 10 - 15 varieties of the eagle side. Congrats!

If this medal appeared on ebay with that story, there would be no question that it is fake. What is the difference where it is being sold? After all, do you remember the description of lot 1004 from the January 2007 auction? Lots of questions with regard to description of lot 1077 from this auction. I do not think it matters much where such item is offered. Seller should be able to show that the item is authentic, not the other way around. It should not be your job, R.W. Julian, nor your job, Mr. Kuna. Long gone are the days when I did not question authenticity just because the item was offered at an auction. Too lucrative to sell Russian patterns and "uniques" to thoroughly check them nowdays. Hard to find an auction that never sold a russian fake. The medal, however, was not authenticated by any official authentication service, russian or US. Diakov publishes these medals in gold and copper. Would be interesting if it is the same gold medal. Would also be interesting to find out the source of information. From what I understand, the first known medal was made in 1887. Would it not be logical that the gold medal for GM would be made the year when the first medal was struck? Not like he needed to save his money for a year to buy gold... The fact that tin and led impressions never turned up does not prove that this medal is original. Only proves that something that existed, may never turn up. Moreover, those tin and led die trials never made their way into catalogs, or did they? I know the russian mint sold white metal medals to the poor, but those were not trials and, as far as I know, also were not catalogued. As far as gold medals go, normally those found their way into literature. But, we are talking about a private issue, so everything is possible. Got to say that you guys know about this medal way more than I do. As to my IMXO -- Fields do look very strange. Doubt that a special set of dies with a strange field surface would be made to strike one medal or two medals. After all, there was a perfectly good set made to strike silver medals. The condition of the medal makes it hard for die comparison. Sometimes the fakes are intentionally aged to hide the signs... But, being that I did not personally see the medal, I will not go either way on this argument. Sorry to add to the confusion, if I did, but I am trying to figure out what is going on myself.

You could say that again.

Then it may be a good idea to start this topic again after we finish with this one and post not less than 10 coins per year. Could be very interesting to compare coins of different countries. Could be very interesting, as well as, educational -- makes it possible to trace the design migration especially 16-17th century Europe to 18th century Russia. Moreover, it is always more interesting to see a date set, instead of just one coin from the set. (IMXO)

sorry I did not see this post earlier. I could post a few cute things starting 1849... But I still have 1686 and 1655 if required. By the way, now that I look at my 1712 ruble, and in view of recent information received, it looks like a 1712/1 overdate. Does it qualify for both 1712 and 1711? Correction: oops: now my is a duplicate posting. Need a verdict on 1711. If my coin does not qualify as 1711, I will take it off in order to avoid duplicate posting.

1712 1 rouble. Large eagle variety.

Beautiful and rare. Congrats. Impossible to afford nowdays. I only wish that we can withstand the pressure of the rising prices and hold on to our collections.

sadly, not to me either.

On the other hand, your slavic date 1707 is amazing!!! I only saw novodels of this quality. I personally would like to get 1707 with a small head. :-)

Thank you. Too bad it is not a recent acquisition :-( Cannot get anything of the sort lately. It was always my goal to find a 1712 with this eagle paired with a portrait with no broch. I think that coin is the cutest one of 1712's. I guess the goal became an impossible dream at these prices.

Check Hess on sixbid.com All these coins are listed for sale. (Russia part I)

gxseries, nothing to worry about -- you will get there. Not only that you read the books, but it is also that you analize and compare, it seems. I read your posts from the past as well as your responces. Very soon you will be writing articles like RW Julian (no disrespect to the great schoolar of Russian numismatics). And I am sure they will be pretty good. Just try not to come to conclusions too soon and without seeing the actual coin -- pictures and descriptions in auction catalogs are sometimes misleading. Markov usually is not too bad, but the illness of embelishment is pertinent to all merchants... grivna, I would like a better picture of your plate. If possible, can you make pictures of every stamp separately? It is very interesting that they are all alligned pretty good. Also, it is interesting that there is a trace of misstamped stamp at 9 oclock. Too bad you cannot photograph the back of it. Very interesting specimen indeed.

If you are talking about lot #1119, then you are up for a big surprise -- the description in the catalog was BS. I was there and I saw the coin. It probably had a damaged edge, and then some moron made a new edge by hand. It is my opinion of course, and it is not beyond contestation. But if you look at the picture in the catalog, you will see rim dings going around the whole circumference of the coin. Those are the marks of hand-punching. There were a couple of super rare coins there, like 1707 ruble small head, 1714/3 ruble, etc. But they were far from superb. The above two coins, for instance, were artificially toned. Lot 1087 was superb, however. Too rich for my blood though. The rarest one was 5 kop 1771 lot #1335. That was my favorite. Too bad it did not become mine.

I have been collecting russian coins for 20 years now. But, I lost my first collection in 1994. Then I was not very active for 3-4 years. Buying a couple of coins a year. Now I am back and for about 3 years I am actively collecting again. As for this rouble -- its problem is that it is a common coin. Yes it is nice, ex. Soderman, but not very exciting. I myself like copper better. To find a copper coin in such condition, now that is a real prize.

To tell you the truth I did not. But edge variation for that period are not considered very collectable. I have a rouble of 1721 which has an unlisted edge for that year. The coin itself is R1 in Bitkin. But the condition is wanting. Thus, I decided to post this one. The 1724 I posted is even more fun

http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1721vl0.jpg 1721 ruble