Candidate

If you inquire about some irregularity (as "АГ" on the edge of your coin) it would be logical to post large and clear photo of this irregularity (edge) first of all, don't you think so?

Here's some - in 65 MB ".rar" archive.

I have collected a not so small archive of fake Russian coins pictures, total of maybe 100MB or more. Unfortunately, I have no time to sort, describe and, especially,upload those pictures to above described web-site one by one. If someone will be willing to do this job, I can share my archive - just please let me know.

Full 1934 set from "MIM" auction # 45, June 2007

Couple of denominations dated 1933 are also known, recognised as trial strikes. Why "tried"?Tuva People's Republic (also known as "Tannu-Tuva") was an independent state from 1921 till 1944. In 1944 it became a part of USSR retaiing the status of autonomy.

Here in Russia it's not so hard. One can easily find several offers of full 1961-1991 sets at "Molotok" starting from RUR15,000 (ca. US$ 490). And it is a little bit cheaper off-line... Though price of this set definitely went up 20- or 30-fold over past 10 years or so (I have bought such a complete set about 7 or 8 years ago for approx. $20 (all coins in UNC, except 1965 rouble which I had to replace later at additional $3 or $5)...

Same way as extant4cell "knows" that it is fake without seeing it's edge... But mainly because after seening hundreds of similar coins I do not need to see the edge of this coin to say that it is genuine... Do you think that authenticity of the coin has relation to the personality of the seller?

You can distinguish silver coin from "silver plated" by picture?? :-)Other coins of this seller may be fake (as "1812-1912 rouble") or under doubt, but this coin (rouble 1854) has no signs of fake and is undoubtfully genuine.

All but Rouble 1854 which looks genuine to me :-)

Modern souvenir. At sale here for 150 roubles (less than USD 5.) Other examples of same sort at sale: here (approx. $3.50) and here (approx. $10)

https://www.sincona.com/content/ru/cmsfiles/files/Sincona07s.pdf

October 2012: Holmasto, Sincona-7, MIM, Gorny, Antykwariat Numizmatyczny, Sincona-9, Hess-Divo, Kuenker...

Here's fake 5 kop. 1970 (date altered from 1976)...

Mintmaster is not an artist or the "author of the die", he is the official person of the mint responsible for certain "production line" (e.g., gold, silver or copper coins). So when mintmaster was changed but the mint was going to use previously produced dies it was normal and quite common to change mintmaster's initials on available dies respectively. There are many examples of Russian coins with such changed initials, for example, on silver coins: МФ/ФГ in 1812, ПС/МФ In 1813, МФ/ПС in 1814, НГ/ПД in 1825, АЧ/НГ in 1842...

Coin is 100% original. It has an overdate (1812/1) and re-engraved mintmasters initials (МФ/ФГ).

http://www.m-dv.ru/catalog/id,3902/prohod.html

... and out of 22 coins on these 2 pages 4 are listed by mistake (2 are actually with cape, and 2 are poltinas)...

This is mine...

I think it was a mistake of Severin... which was "copy-pasted" by Bitkin...Actually, the one without cape (Bitkin # 132) is scarcer than the one with cape in relation of approx. 1:5 to 1:6 (my statistics).

Simply type "Felzmann 135" in Google search window... and - voila!

March 1st - GELOS March 6th-10th - Felzmann 135 March 10th - HOLMASTO 119 March 12th- Sworders March 23rd - iNumis 17 March 31st - NIKO 9

The coin looks authentic, but bobh is 100% right: if any suspicion - better simply pass by and buy another one.

In 1987 3 and 5 roubles were still worth much enough... I graduated and got my first "serious" job in 1986, and in 1987-1988 the full 3-course lunch in our canteen was still not more than 1.50; cigarettes started from 40 kop (when you could find them in tobacco "kiosk"), and bottle of beer was 50 kop (including 20 kop. refund for empty bottle).Though, as noted above, it was harder and harder with each year to find and buy even basic items as most kinds of food (meat, fish, fresh vegetables), clothes and most of other consumer goods... even in Moscow they had to start rationing and "talony" (kind of coupons) were introduced for some of goods, as sugar, soap, cigarettes, vodka, etc. And in 1988 or 1989 to get an officially priced 50-kop. bottle of beer we with my friends often went to a liguor store from backdoor ("s chernogo vkhoda") and paid 1 rouble for bottle; also you had to bribe a doorman (5 or 10 roubles usually) to get into a restaurant in the evening, and so on... But 3 and 5 roubles coins actually were never (or very rarely) seen in circulation till 1990 or 1991... Actually, I found 5 roubles commemorative coins from circulation only once or twice (I think, it was in 1991), and never found 3 roubles coin. And by mid-1991 inflation was speeding up on a full scale already, and 5 roubles could buy you probably less than 1 rouble 3 years earlier...

Maybe situation was different in other parts of USSR, but in Moscow rouble coins - both "ordinary" and "jubilee" (commemorative) were quite common in circulation.Though they were not popular among both people (as they were rather heavy and inconvenient to carry) and cashiers / sellers (as there were difficulties when cashing them to the bank)... similar as 1 dollar coins are now not popular in the U.S. at all. So cashiers often tried to get rid of "iron roubles" (as they were called commonly) and give it to you as change, and people normally tried to refuse... 1964 roubles were very common, as well as commemoratives of 1965 ("20 years of Victory"), 1967 ("50 years of Soviet power") and 1970 ("100 years of Lenin"). 1965 and 1966 were also rather common, while other dates of "ordinary" (not commemorative) roubles were rather hard to find in circulation. I started to collect Soviet coins in approx. 1970 (at the age of 8) and could not spend almost any money to buy coins for my collection, so up to 1977 or so all new Soviet coins for my collection came from circulation (at first, mostly from my mother's and granmother's purses :-)). And even when I started to own some own money, I did not pay 3 or 4 roubles for 1-rouble coins of scarcer dates, preferring to search for them in circulation... Finally, as far as I remember, I managed to find all but couple (1967, 1970, maybe some other too) 1 rouble coins by year 1979 or 1980 when I put numismatics aside (temporarily) in favour of other, at that time much more pleasant and attractive ways to spend time and money... Also, a 1961 rouble (with plain edge) at first was quite common, but in 70's dissappeared (or was withdrawn) from circulation almost completely... I remember spending 1 rouble 1961 from my collection in around 1975 (because I was sure it would be very easy to find a new one) but then couldn' find it for long time... so I finally had to buy it... 25 or so years later. Most of commemoratives were easily found in circulation till approx. 1980-1981 (including all the "Olympic" roubles).I guess, the reason was that it became popular to collect "jubilee" roubles after 1980 Olympic Games. As far as I remember, the first really hard-to-find commemorative rouble was a "Soviet-Bulgarian Friendship" in 1981. But it is true that in the last years of USSR (1990 or even in 1991) commemorative roubles emerged in large quantities... and at that time their value decreased drastically due to high inflation. As for "ordinary" circulation roubles, they also started to emerge (especially, dated 1980-1991) and were very common in 1991 and even later. Also, as it became known later, after desintegration of USSR, considerable quantities of rouble coins of all previous dates (except 1965) were kept by Central Bank. In 1994 or so Central Bank of Russia (CBR) planned to utilize (melt) them, but some enthusiastic coin dealer managed to save some quantities of those for numismatists, buying them from CBR at a price of scrap metal. So all "common" roubles series of 1961-1991 (except 1965) became very common and affordable for collectors by mid- or end of 90s; and were sold by coin dealers by full sets in UNC condition (though 1965 was usually presented by VF in the set, obviously from circulation). I bought such a full set in around 2002 or 2003 for 500 roubles (around $15-$17). Since then prices went up, but it is still possible to find a full "common" roubles set for $300 or so.

1 rouble 1971 now sells in Russia for about $8-$12 in UNC condition. In 70's 1 rouble was worth a hearty lunch at worker's canteen.Ice cream and coffee in cheap cafe was around 50 kopecks. In a street bar ("ryumochnaya") a shot of vodka (50 ml) plus a small sandwich was, as far as I remember, also 50 kop. Pack of filter cigarettes was 30 kop. In 1969 when I went to school my parents gave me 15 kopecks for breakfast in a school buffet (tea or cacao plus roll or cheese sandwich).