bobh

I just returned home from the Hess-Divo auction 3 from this afternoon which had some Russian coins for sale towards the very end of the auction. Not a whole lot of coins, though, and none of the lots were such rarities or "drop dead gorgeous" enough to attract a lot of customers, I'm afraid to say. The auction room was fairly small, and it was seldom as much as half full. Live bidding over the internet was enabled, but there were only a few bidders whose numbers kept appearing again and again, mostly from the USA, but also some Polish, Russian and German bidding was going on. Many of the lots were won by write-in bids, apparently. So I stuck it out from about 2:30 pm all the way through the French, Italian and British lots before winding up in Russia at approx. 5:15 pm. There was one 15 minute break for coffee, which I'm sure the auctioneer needed more than anyone else. I had gone there primarily for this one coin, which I won for a very reasonable price: http://www.sixbid.co...viewlot&sid=597 Since people who have studied my own coins know that I already own two 7-1/2 rouble gold coins, it might be asked: "Why another one?" This one is the wide-rim variety which, AFAIK, has only been documented in the Kazakov catalog which is surely hard to get these days, having had only 1,000 copies printed and not yet reprinted -- anyway, I didn't have one yet, but wanted to have this variety. Along the way, I picked these up very unexpectedly for less than the estimate since I was the only bidder on one of them, and there was one other bidder interested in the second one, but he stopped after we reached CHF 100: http://www.sixbid.co...viewlot&sid=597 (sold in the March 2010 Künker auction for EUR 260.-, bought by me for CHF 100 ) http://www.sixbid.co...viewlot&sid=597 (sold in the Sept.-Oct. 2010 Künker auction for EUR 180.-, bought by me for CHF 100 ) After all, these are nice uncirculated coins ... anything this old which is still uncirculated must be worth that much, don't you think? And I really don't have much sympathy for someone who turns the coins over that fast ... they held it for just 2 years! But after the hammer fell on the 7-1/2 rouble, and it was mine, I was totally NOT expecting to win this one for less than $1,000: http://www.sixbid.co...viewlot&sid=597 I guess I'll have to sell some stock that had turned a profit recently in order to pay for it, but I think I got a good deal on this one. Its 1909 "cousin" brought even more moolah, but 1910 is much rarer! 1909 was the date which was presumably restruck by the Soviets in 1926 or so, according to Bitkin, as well as 1911 ten rouble coins. Severin remarks that at the time he wrote his gold and platinum book, the 1909 five rouble coins were "presently flooding the market." I regularly see at least 20 times more 1909 gold 5 R. for sale than 1910, and 1911 is even scarcer IMHO (the 5 rouble, NOT the 10 rouble coin.) There were some Nicholas I platinum coins that brought a bit over CHF 1,000 each, but they were so beat up -- F/VF at best -- that they didn't have much resale potential, IMHO (and don't forget that platinum is cheaper than gold these days, too!)

I don't know much about this series, but the image is a bit strange: the middle part is in very good focus all around within the circle, yet the corresponding parts of the wreath in the horizontal direction are out of focus! It looks like a Photoshop job to me, but it is hard to tell because the image might have been rotated.

PS - I noticed from your list of interests under your avatar that you collect insects as well as coins. Presumably, you also do photography of the critters ... do you have a link to your insect pictures? I would love to see some of them!

Nice rouble! I like your photos much better than Künkers. As you say, some things get emphasized that you'd rather not have (e.g., the rub on the hair). But the fields and the patina are gorgeous! With the bottom pictures, everything looks kind of so-so. Just curious ... looks like you sent it in to NGC ... what grade did they give it?

I just love the images over at the Heritage site! Sometimes the colors seem a little off to me. But you can't beat them for detail! In Europe, I think there is a company in Stuttgart or in that region which specializes in coin photography. Dmitry Markov used them for a long time; there was a reference to the company in one of his older auction catalogs, but I couldn't find it right away. I'm fairly sure that Künker and maybe Gorny & Mosch use them. They have to be equipped for mass production of photos, so they choose setups that work for all sorts of different coins without emphasizing any certain aspect of one particular coin type. Yes, Künker does a good job at grading, and I've always been pleasantly surprised when a coin I win from them finally arrives. I'm not so sure about the grading standards with some of the other European auction houses, though. Many times it seems that they "forget" to mention scratches and rim nicks, although they are usually mentioned in the descriptions. But although I try to get as nice a photo of my own coins as humanly possible (within the bounds of my limited budget, that is), it's OK for me if the catalog images are just "good enough" without being something to really drool over.

It's been awhile since I was able to add to this thread. Now it looks like this is coming my way from Leipzig (auction 74, Leipziger Münzhandlung): 1864 2 cents, small motto: Listed on the PCGS price guide at $350 in F-12 and $750 in EF-40, I think I got a good deal at 200€ here!

Also some Russian coins are in your auction #6 in May here: http://www.sixbid.com/nav.php?search=Russland&p=viewsale&sid=580&s=b

I like the rattlers because PCGS apparently used to be much stricter on grading back then than nowadays. The rattlers are getting scarce because a lot of people like to submit them for regrading -- sometimes cracking them out beforehand. You have some very nice sets ... Good luck on completing many of them in the near future! A famous collector (don't know who it was) once said that there are two major crises a collector faces in the course of building a collection: 1 - Not finding that one elusive coin you need to complete your set; and 2 - Finding and acquiring the coin, because then you'll need to find another object of desire to chase!

Image links are broken...

The problem with removing corrosion is that there is often pitting underneath, and cleaning will probably remove desirable patina and reduce the collector's value of a coin. Of course, there are some methods of cleaning which are safer than others in this respect. But looking at your picture, I'm not sure that you really need to clean that one. You might try soaking it in extra-virgin olive oil for a few weeks and see if that makes any difference. But try this on a common-date coin first to see what effect it has on the metal and patina.

1902 must be the most common date of all 5 rouble coins of Nicholas II. You can get one in very nice condition every day of the year for reasonable money. Why bother with this one if you don't like it? That being said, there are fakes of just about every Russian coin, even common ones such as this one. I don't see anything strange about it, but pictures are not in great focus. What does the coin weigh? Does the edge have the correct mintmaster initials on it -- (A.P) --?

Now we have a little more time to save up some money until October!

Thanks, Art ... it is the Nikon device. It fits on most Nikons; my camera is a D60 with a macro lens. The catalog number and description for the part is "Eyepiece Magnifier DG-2". The magnifier does me a lot of good because I am pretty near-sighted, and you can adjust it to your own dioptry. Auto-focus just isn't good enough sometimes. I will usually take two or three pictures of the same coin and lighting setup, but refocus manually in between. Then there is usually at least one shot which is really in good focus that I can use. It might not help other people as much, and the magnification isn't all that large (only 2x) but it does give you more detail to focus on. It's pretty expensive for what it does, IMHO, but I use it all the time now for taking close-ups.

It is a little further up in this same thread: http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?/topic/11376-bobh-was-at-it-again/page__view__findpost__p__517947 Thanks ... I got interested in the Bar Kochba series some time ago. Then I had an opportunity to buy a nice small bronze some time back, and now wanted to get a silver zuz. The larger tetradrachmas are quite pricey, so I will probably have to leave it at that. Thanks for looking!

Will look into the VAM varieties of these next thing when I have time: H. USA, Morgan dollar 1879-S: I. USA, Morgan dollar 1885-O: J. USA, Morgan dollar 1897-S: K. USA, San Diego - California Pacific International Exposition 50 cent commemorative - 1936-D: This dime has the Fortin 151 reverse -- die breaks from the rim through "E" of "UNITED" and through the last "S" of "STATES": L. USA, dime 1853 (arrows at date):

E. USA, large cent 1837 (haven't had time to attribute the Newcomb variety yet): F. USA, Indian Head cent 1863: G. USA, Indian Head cent 1884: Next post: a few Morgan dollars and a 1936-D San Diego 50 cent commemorative, plus one interesting SL dime.

OK, a few things have accumulated here over the past year. I was only able to take some pictures over the past weekend, and will have to split these up across three different posts. Here we go, chronologically: A. JUDAEA, Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 C.E.), silver zuz (undated, attributed to year 3 -- 134/5 C.E.): B. RUSSIA, "Baroque" silver 5 kopecks 1758-СПБ (Tsarina Elisabeth): C. RUSSIA, 5 kopecks 1760 no mintmark (Tsarina Elisabeth): D. RUSSIA, 5 kopecks 1796-AM (Tsarina Catherine II): Next post: USA, one large cent and two Indian cents.

I have bought many times from this seller in the past and was never disappointed. Even the most knowledgeable of sellers will be taken in by a fake at times (not to say that I know this is a fake ... it is not one of the things I collect). Is there anything remotely similar to this one listed in the Bitkin catalogue?

Yes ... very clear evidence for Paul's recoining on that one. Not bad for an auction that started at £1.

Definitely fake. The first 10 rouble coins with this design (or rather, with the genuine design, of which this is a poor copy) were not struck until 1898. There are rare patterns of 10 rouble gold coins ("imperials") with date 1895, but these have a different design: http://www.m-dv.ru/catalog/id,949/type.html

"collection was formed in the years 1960-1980" Does this mean that these coins all came from a single collection?

Interesting to see how many lots were left unsold -- also a fair amount of stuff was withdrawn. Even one of the donative gold coins didn't sell (37-1/2 roubles), although the estimate was lower than many of the prices recently achieved for this type at other auctions. One of the 3 rouble platinum coins and a lot of the Nicholas I gold didn't sell. Were there perhaps some fakes here which should have been withdrawn? There was similar action (or lack of it) in the USA section.

Was it also in an NGC slab? Same number???

If it is genuine, then someone got it for half of what it would normally cost at a reputable auction. Doesn't make any sense at all for a seller to put up a coin like this on eBay. Buyers with this kind of money also will not buy something like this on eBay, so why bother? I wonder what the eBay listing fees for this price are ... was it really worth it (assuming that a shill bidder won it)???