extant4cell

Thank you Alex! Everyone wish you all Happy New Year!!! My best happy moment is getting 1721 rouble in the mail in good order... I was very happy!!!

This 1840 2 Kopecks EM - close to dead condition. But, it's cipher, is it ornamented or not?

Your attempt, is kind of what inspired me to put them all in order. I have looked through your projects when I joined here (including your ovestuck coins one), and it was sitting at the back of my mind since then. I just wanted to add some more of really good (visually) overstrike representatives to the coins I already had before putting this presentation together. This was my last addition (yet to be received): and I got a little too excited about this, so I couldn't wait anymore and put it all up... Thank you for sharing your projects with us, they can be inspiring as you can see.

Thank you for noting that. I didn't do a literature cross referencing when I put this together in a rush late last night while watching "Braking Bad", just relied on my not all that good memory at that time. I've made changes now, to have it right. Thank you! Thank you! This is my first effort to put my overstrikes in some meaningful order Thank you for these points. I'll give them a go in the future. So far I concentrated mostly on larger (more visually impressive) coins in my collecting.

Series 2: 38 Years of Evolution of 5 Kopecks of Elisabeth (1758 - 1796) [around 51.19 gram] From 5 Kopecks of Elisabeth to Peter III "Armature" 10 Kopecks to 5 Kopecks of Catherine II to 1796 10 Kopecks of Paul I (supposedly prepared for invasion and quickly recoined back to old Catherine II coins by Paul I once the plans were abandoned). 10 Kopecks of Paul I are missing (super rare and expensive). 10 Kopecks of Paul I recoined back into Catherine II 5 Kopecks coins by Paul I That's all so far... Have a Happy and Fruitful New 2013 Year!

This is my effort in collecting 18th Century Russian overstrikes so far. Series 1: 73 Years of Evolution of 5 Kopecks Cross Coin (1723 - 1796) [around 20.48 gram] From 5 Kopecks Cross coin of Peter the Grate, Catherine I, and Peter II to a 3 year type 1 Kopeck "Baroque" (in the Clouds) of Elisabeth and to 2 Kopecks with St.George of Elisabeth to one year type 4 Kopecks "Armature" of Peter III (I am missing this type in visible overstrike from 2 Kopecks) and to 2 Kopecks with St. George of Catherine II to 1796 4 Kopecks of Paul I (supposedly prepared for invasion and quickly recoined back to old Catherine II 2 Kopecks coins by Paul I once the plans were abandoned). 4 Kopecks of Paul I are missing (super rare and super expensive). 4 Kopecks of Paul I recoined back into Catherine II 2 Kopecks coins by Paul I (missing). The one I had in this place deemed not to be Paul's restrike. Discussion of that coin is below.

Not a currency. Fantasy coin. Value - absence or presence of luck! The legend goes - you can not buy or sell the lucky rouble. If it came to you, with you not specifically trying to buy it, it's lucky, and you keep it for luck. If you sell it, you will loose your luck. If you buy it, you will not gain luck. If you pay with it, it will come back to you... but while you keep it, luck comes your way... something like this... Only this is not that very lucky rouble, it is a fantasy coin that replicates the lucky ruoble... sort of a fake legendary rouble, that states it's purpose but carries no magic.

They are awful. Obvious fabrications.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5574633083&toolid=10001&campid=5335826004&customid=&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg&icep_item=130812450782 Here is something to laugh about... Seller says that they are glued to the board ... I also came across a much bigger collection similar to this one...made from PLASTIC!

Nice examples of fakes! Hope the book is not useless and they only put the obvious fakes on the cover to make it clear this is a catalog of fake coins. After all, they see all sort of fakes in Russia, including some very tricky once... I'll be spewing if it's not what I expect...

Someone mentioned to me that slabs are sealed with ultrasound, don't know if that's true or not, but their can not use anything toxic as that would damage the coin in a long run. The following is only my opinion, that is based on my experiences. The slab and the certificate attached to it are there to serve the preservation of the coin. Opening a slab will not make the coin worthless, it will be a bit more difficult to prove that this coin belongs to this certificate, but not as difficult as it may seam as all major grading companies scan each slab and keep it in their data base. You can actually check visually if the coin in a slab is the same as on their scan. All you need is to enter the cert. number on their web-site for confirmation and compare it against the picture. Really, the certificate is given to a coin, not to a slab, so even if you take it out of the slab you can still refer to this service for verification of coin's authenticity and grade (if you like), as long as the number of the certificate has been kept by you after you broke the coin free. Now, GIM is the same as D. Sear's coin authentication / identification service. Only D. Sear is a specialist in ancient numismatics, where as GIM in Russian coins. The idea is the same, making a quality Black and White picture of the coin and authenticating (and identifying if need be) the coin according to this picture. The truth is that it is easier to do this with ancient coins as they all have their distinct character, where as Russian coin that are a bit more modern may be pretty identical with each other. This makes certificate less useful for such coins. But if coin has distinct imperfections, it's pretty easy. The slab can not guaranty that coin is authentic as there are a lot of fake slabbed coins around, it's comparing the coin in a slab with the same coin's scan on the authentication / grading company's site that may guaranty that to a degree. In any case, for the experienced collector it's easier to establish if the coin is authentic or not if collector can actually touch the coin...

I actually don't have a pathological hatred of slabs. My car better not run over the coins, that could be tragic. I was hoping to find an easy method of careful slab opening for coin inspection. If the edge is nothing special, I would be happy to put it all back together and seal it in a slab again... I am not as radical with my methods as you may think, I am a bit of a conservator...

I like the picture of pliers nice touch! I was hoping there was some trick that would let you keep it intact. Some slabs have some sort of squarish holes on their sides along the line where 2 parts of the slab join. I thought there may have been a reason for these holes... If you don't know any other ways, I'll try an old Russian method:

I've ordered one from ozon.ru the other day, but it will take a while to get it. Can let you know once i looked through this catalog.

Is there a safe way to open a slab? I will be interested to know, so I could free a few of my Russian coins... I post it here, because in other sections people may feel strange about me getting a coin out, but I'm sure you will understand me here... Thank you in advance!

This Russian Fake Coins catalog may be of some assistance as well: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Russian-Book-FAKES-OF-RUSSIAN-COINS-Conros-/321044328332?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item4abfbbaf8c

I saw these fakes on molotok as well, a few months ago. Made in Ukraine I believe... I'd be very careful. The date is still far from perfect, you can still tell the fake and a real thing apart...

Not really. It's worth something to some if they are ignorant. It's like, when Cook came to islanders and to aboriginal people using cheap (for him) shinny staff for trade, was making big savings! The thing is though, it was good for both parties. For Aborigines these things were out of their world, and very rare, not copies of something they already saw before. However, if people are happy to pay money for this, it makes them happy, be it, how else will they learn? Mistakes are great teachers! Expensive mistakes are even better teachers. There are different capacities for learning though, so there will always be fools as much as some very smart people. Theses people are not on a remote island to be going on a gut feeling solo, they should have invested a little bit of money / time into researching this "rare" 10 kopecks (kopeks, kopeken, kopeek, kopek) of 1796 with "H" (N) mark - for a supposed "Novodel", and same with the Siberian 5 kopecks of 1767. They could have bought this book for example: http://www.ebay.com....=item45fd1b0a07 , or at least did what I did (since I was not collecting for a while and was not aware of recent developments) and ask questions (see the start of this topic). I'd rather feel like a fool on a forum, than pay loads of money for a worthless fantasy coin that resembles something rare, but was produced only a few years ago from the dies made by someone unknown, who has no relation to any of the official mints, but thinking that it was a NOVODEL coin! I write all this here mostly for the benefit of the next person that may be interested in these coins or some other coins from the same e-Bay seller (collectresale) and do a bit of a research first. Unfortunately, demand creates supply, so we may see more of these coins popping up soon, trying to fetch a good price. The lesson is, I guess, "Don't buy before you research"!!!

My God! 41 bids on this .... someone will get a shocking surprise at $430 price if they'd try to put it for sale at a real auction... Crazy!

Well, if it wasn't sold then (http://www.mcsearch.info/record.html?id=358934), it will be in just 40 min-s (price already at $430! - crazy!): http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/230895201484?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 And this one: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/230895199897?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 in 35 min, and already at $86! Bet that 10k will go for about 500! and 5k for around $150

Thank you Alex! I worry every time when it is a highly desirable coin, just trying to hide that as much as I can ...

I think this is a different seller. He sells what he calls "novodels" lol ... Here are his previous sales: http://www.ebay.com.au/csc/direktorsssr/m.html?item=330842787198&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D330842787198%26_rdc%3D1&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc

I finally received this coin today. Very happy! I just wished the eagle didn't have its left wing chopped off a bit...

Here is another one, sold not so long ago, don't have a link anymore:

Most of the time it is a wise decision that saves you from trouble and worries. I believe, that these two coins are from the same find (are there more?). A lot of Russians lived in China per-revolution and up to the end of WWII, there must be a lot of hidden treasured around there... I knew a few people here in Melbourne that used to live there, and still cross with some of their families when I go to church (occasionally) ...