marv

Just remember that novodels were official products of Russian Government mints; their dies were engraved by government engravers and they were issued under Russian Government authority. They are in no way fakes or counterfeits. They were eagerly sought by wealthy contemporary collectors who, in many cases, were not able to obtain original coins of those designs or were not able to find original coins in collectible condition. Novodels fall into the broad category of collector objects not destined for commerce such as all proof coins, pattern coins, medals, buttons, etc. But more specifically, Russian Novodels are just as much a part of Russian numismatic history as the 1804 US silver dollar is a part of American numismatic history, since it, too, is a novodel. By the way, the 1804 dollar is one of the most famous and popular American "coins" even though it is a reproduction produced from around 1834 to the 1850's in several emissions. It typically sells for millions of dollars.

If one is a student of Russian Numismatic history, then the possible collection of novodels is a natural outcome of that study as is the possible collection of wire money or beard tokens. In fact associating a coin to a specific date is only a recent phenomenon. Ancient coins were, in many cases, minted over many years, with no definite indication of their date of production except a rough indication when a monarch might be mentioned or depicted. Many dies were used, and in most cases one cannot tie a coin to a specific year. The Romans were better about dating, but it is still an inexact science to associate a specific date with a coin.

I mention this because it makes no sense to me for some to denigrate the collection of a whole class of numismatic objects just because they were not struck for commerce or because the date on the coin might not coincide with the date of manufacture.

I'll try MS63. There are a couple of marks on it, so I don't think it's a 68.

MS64

Thank you all for nice words

Expect an order from me also after I get my tax rebate (oh yeah, I'm supposed to use it to buy something in the US!).

Thanks Antikvarius

P.S. There are PROOF rubles for both 1921 and 1922, but they are exceeding scarce, and easily go over 1,000USD because of their extreme scarcity.

Here is a picture of my 1922 proof rouble referred to earlier. A nice proof rouble like this is easily worth over $2000 today, maybe $3000.

Super XXL images for people who want details of this coin:

Concerning proof star rubles, the Heifetz and Goodman sales (Superior) both had several proof sets of 1921 and 22. These were split up, and have been offered at various times by Superior and the Goldbergs during the Hesselgesser sales of the last few years. I bought the Heifetz 1922 AG proof for around $1900. It is in an NGC PF66 slab, and truely is an outstanding coin. It may or may not mean anything that it is the highest graded example at NGC, and PCGS (I think). Interestingly enough, the same Superior sale (January 2004) featured the 1922 PL proof from the same Heifetz set as my AG; it went for over $4000!!, and is not as nice (an NGC pf65). I looked at it and it is definitely not as nice as the one I bought. So why did it go so high? I am not sure, but there are two varieties of 1922 PL rubles. One has the comma between BCEX CTRAH placed close to the letter "H", the other has the comma mid-way between the "H" and the beginning letter "C" of the following word. The PL version in the auction had the rarer placement. But $4000+??? I think this was an example of auction fever. Anyway, I am happy that I got the nicer of the two coins.