alexbq2

I'm willing to believe the Soviet restrike theory, but I might be among the minority. I actually don't think it that strange that such coin went undocumented for 110 years. -First, the Soviet mints are very secretive. -Second, they lost a lot of documents over the years so even if someone had access they might not find any records of such striking. -Third, I don't believe that there has been much effort of any kind of new cataloging of Russian coins until the last decade, at least not in Russia. -Fourth, gold coins were not easily traded/collected in russia due to prohibitive laws, and a lot were destroyed to get the metal, not sure if anyone was paying much attention in the west, I guess until the most recent decade they mostly traded as bullion. Of course it could be a well done fake. Let's say the forgerer did not feel like making a new piece for the edging, but wanted to introduce a new pair of copied dies (which as I understand are easier to make but wear out quicker), so he struck a few dozen coins with the new dies but the with old edge. I guess if all of a sudden we hear about more mixed coins like this one we'll know it is a forgery. Otherwise, I like the Soviet restrike idea!

Just a side note, the coin sold at Wolmar went for something like $250.

Here's one from Wolmar:

Fritz Rudolf Kuenker GmbH # 161 2009 IMHO not an improvement over mine. Nor this one: DMITRY MARKOV Coins & Medals # 21 2009

Haven't met the Empress...

Here's that 1739 polupoltinnik. I am pleased with it. Not too hard on the eye in person.

Thank you! I don't think I could afford to touch a higher grade one, so I decided to grab the less appealing specimen. IMHO this coin is much scarcer than the 1798 10 kopeeks and does not quite have as much air shining through it.

A lot is being said these days about low grade coins and how the market is leaning away from them, and perhaps there’s some truth to that, but true or not some popular and difficult coins still do well in auctions in spite of their hideousness. In the following auction, a holed 1798 10 kopeeks with very jagged multiple cuts into its edge was sold on ebay for over $100: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=200480153523

Looks great!

Not exactly a coin, but still Paul's, and silver, and I believe these were used as money.

This illustrates the point about popularity: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=270552061349

I don't have it on hand, but the edge looks good and clean. But yes the coin has been cleaned, probably with some chemicals no traces of patina left. I've seen dealers in Germany do that to silver coins.

A popular issue, very competitive pricing these days! Got this one not too long ago:

Nice bugs - Big!

Because enough people are willing to pay the high prices.

That does not explain the high prices that Novodels habitually command.

As I recall, Uzdenikov gave a brief definition of a Novodel as “An object struck at some date later than that indicated on the object, at the mint with original or newly cut dies, or outside of the mint but with original dies.” The reason for the last part of the definition is due to the fact that some Gangut roubles were struck at GIM with original dies.

Sorry, not for sale.

I also have this one - 1810 2 kopeeks СПБ-ФГ:

Here's my 1810 ИМ over СПБ (МК) 2 kopeeks:

Is this by any chance the same coin?

There's an error on it? I can't quite see as the images are so small, but I thought this was that uber-rare old type/new type "mule" coin.

As I understand, collecting Soviet Russian circulation coins has become quite popular these days. Now that hobby involves measuring microscopic deviations in minute details on otherwise identical coins. So distinguishing coins by stylistic changes in the design does not seem like a hassle in comparison (to me).

I try!

Well, we know that the type I showed is R1 (Bitkin). So if Steve could count up the number of that type of coins in his DB, we could compare it to the number of Kuna's coins and draw our conclusions based on that.