Counterfeited Russian copper coins

[gxseries]

During the early Russian coinages, from 1700-1800, Russian copper coins planchets were roughly determined how much rubles were fixed to a pood of copper.

 

This is a period of time where mass counterfeits appeared, as it was very profitable to counterfeit copper coins, like the 1723-1730 5 kopeks, 1718 polushkas, and the notorious Swedish counterfeits of the large Ekaterina II 5 kopeks copper coins.

 

Remember this is a period of time when mass overstriking occured. Do you think such counterfeited coins were melted down or overstruck? I have yet to hear of a counterfeited coin overstruck, and yet such counterfeits are amazingly "scarce" to find these days.

[grivna1726]

During the early Russian coinages, from 1700-1800, Russian copper coins planchets were roughly determined how much rubles were fixed to a pood of copper.

 

This is a period of time where mass counterfeits appeared, as it was very profitable to counterfeit copper coins, like the 1723-1730 5 kopeks, 1718 polushkas, and the notorious Swedish counterfeits of the large Ekaterina II 5 kopeks copper coins.

 

Remember this is a period of time when mass overstriking occured. Do you think such counterfeited coins were melted down or overstruck? I have yet to hear of a counterfeited coin overstruck, and yet such counterfeits are amazingly "scarce" to find these days.

 

I don't know the answer for sure, but it seems to me that if the counterfeit was of about the right weight (no reason why it shouldn't be in view of the large profit which could be made by making counterfeits to government specifications), then it would make more sense to overstrike the counterfeits than to melt them and prepare new flans.

 

If so, with the partial obliteration of the undertype by overstriking, it would probably be very difficult to determine which undertypes were originally contemporary counterfeits and which were originally government-made coins.

 

Melting would only make sense if the coins were grossly underweight or overweight and therefore not suitable for overstriking (although the weights of individual copper coins often varied significantly).

 

Counterfeits of gold or silver coins would be more likely candidates for melting.

 

The copper plates made 1726-27 were recalled and melted to make lower weight 5 kopeks coins of the then current krestovik type (the plates obviously being unsuitable for revaluation by overstriking). There might have been other cases in which copper coins were melted down, but the plates are the only ones that I know were melted.