2 Kopeks 1872 EM

[bagerap]

I'm only just starting to get into Russians and picking up odd pieces when they're cheap, trying to learn. Today I found a 2 Kopek 1872 EM, Y# 10.1, judging by the sellers picture condition is F. Checking Krause, they appear to command higher prices than other coins in that series despite having much larger mintages.

Has the population been artificially reduced, by a recall or melt or whatever?

[alexbq2]

Mintage figures do not always accurately reflect how easy or difficult it is to procure a coin. At the same time, my references do not indicate anything special about 1872 EM 2 kopeeks.

[russia_coins]

This year is very common eventhough in F, scarcer in XF-UNC condition. The 2 kopeks 1867 EM/SPB, 1868 SPB, 1869 SPB, 1870SPB, 1871 EM/SPB, 1876EM and 1892 SPB are much scarcer, some are almost impossible to find.

[bagerap]

This is what I get from SCWC:

 

 

Y# 10.2 2 KOPEKS

Copper

Date Mintage F VF XF Unc

1867ЕМ 150,000 12.00 25.00 50.00 100

1868ЕМ 18,200,000 3.00 7.00 15.00 30.00

1869ЕМ 22,174,000 3.00 7.00 15.00 30.00

1870ЕМ 21,884,000 3.00 7.00 15.00 30.00

1871ЕМ 7,058,000 3.00 7.00 15.00 30.00

1872ЕМ 12,734,000 12.00 25.00 50.00 100.

1873ЕМ 7,364,000 3.00 7.00 15.00 30.00

1874ЕМ 8,551,000 3.00 7.00 15.00 30.00

1875ЕМ 10,451,000 3.00 7.00 15.00 30.00

1876ЕМ 2,905,000 4.00 8.00 18.00 35.00

 

 

High mintage but also high prices. Seems to be bourne out by ebay asking prices. Few if any completed listings to verify this though.

[alexbq2]

I'm not sure where they get their information. In my mind 67 EM is the toughest coin in this EM series, and 72 EM is not difficult (IMHO). Not sure why they would be equal in SCWC...

 

To actually confirm what's hard and what's easy we need to wait for Steve Moulding's Alexander 2 study.

 

Is there one underway?

[STEVE MOULDING]

There's no study active, but a quick peek at the number of EM 2K sales I have so far for these dates shows:

 

1867ЕМ 17

1868ЕМ 30

1869ЕМ 70

1870ЕМ 73

1871ЕМ 25

1872ЕМ 49

1873ЕМ 27

1874ЕМ 34

1875ЕМ 55

1876ЕМ 9

 

I've hardly touched Alexander II (many hundreds more records await), but this gives a basic idea already . The 1872EM seems quite normal.

 

For the mathematical among you, the plot of "coins seen" vs "mintage figures" shows an 80% correlation using a zero-intercept constrained linear regression. The only obvious outlier is the 1868EM (should see more like 55 at that mintage) [interpret with the usual caveats regarding official mintage figures].

 

Steve

[one-kuna]

this 2 kop 1872 EM in XF is by $40, in fine ? its not scarse and rare, IMXO

[PeterShell]

The thing is that cataloque you are using is a little bit ...let's say.. strange - when we talk about prices. There is much more very unacurate informations there - regarding Russian coins

[bagerap]

The thing is that cataloque you are using is a little bit ...let's say.. strange

 

This is the point I was trying to make, if the mintages listed are accurate; why such a price uplift? SCWC is taken as the pricing bible by a large percentage of the world's collectors, but there are so many instances being reported of wildly inaccurate pricing.

[alexbq2]

I think it's only popular because it is accessible, and gives an impression that you have information on almost any coin at your fingertips. I've already seen more aggressive world coin dealers switch to less available but more accurate references, although mostly in PDF formats.

[extant4cell]

 

This is from 2009 Konros auction catalogue.

Here is a web-based russian site that is very easy to use even if you don't read Russian, just choose the year and off you go: http://www.numismat.ru/catalogs.shtml