PlatinumDuck Posted April 8, 2013 Report Share Posted April 8, 2013 Greetings all, I enjoy coins featuring wildlife. In my opinion Russia has some of the most beautiful wildlife coins int he Red Data Book series and the Protect Our World Series. My question here concerns the Protect our World Series. They were issued starting in 1993 with the Brown Bear and followed with the Sable, Lynx, Tiger, Polar Bear, Snow Leopard, Reindeer, Beaver, and most recently another Leopard species( I forget which one). There are both Silver and gold coins in this series. I have seen pictures or auctions of all of the different issues except for the Gold Polar Bears. How rare are these coins? I particularly like Bears on coins, so I am interested in them and why they never appear for sale anywhere. It seems the Brown Bear is the most common of the gold coins I see for sale, followed by the Tiger and Lynx. I have seen some of the gold coins of the new leopard, beaver, reindeer, and snow leopard. I have never seen the polar bears(other than the pictures on the bank of Russia website). Are they just harder to find because they didn't come in sets? Were any of these coins melted? Any insight is appreciated. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted April 9, 2013 Report Share Posted April 9, 2013 They do appear on ebay once in a while but the asking and buying price is quite high. See this link for examples: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=bear&_sop=1&_osacat=32476&_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR8.TRC0&_nkw=bear+gold&_sacat=32476 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlatinumDuck Posted April 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2013 Thanks for the response gxseries. I see that the brown bears, tigers, and lynx show up on ebay quite often. The sable and the snow leopard show up on occasion and the asian leopard and beaver also seem common to find. But the polar bears seem absent aside from the silver coins. I'm just curious as to why I have never been able to find the gold polar bear coins, yet the rest of the gold animals in this series seems pretty easy to find. I'll just keep looking. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted April 15, 2013 Report Share Posted April 15, 2013 They are not rare - just doesn't appear out in the Western world. Note that the issue year of 1997 - this is when the first Russian financial crisis occured. A lot of commemorative coins from 1997 - 2000 ish are now commanding a higher premium. Might suspect some coins were not sold to public and melted down. Can't blame anyone for this as if you can't sell them, they are only good for scrap metal. Here's some listings on a Russian auction site. http://molotok.ru/listing.php/search?string=%D0%9F%D0%9E%D0%9B%D0%AF%D0%A0%D0%9D%D0%AB%D0%99+%D0%9C%D0%95%D0%94%D0%92%D0%95%D0%94%D0%AC&category=78259&order=pd&change_view=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlatinumDuck Posted April 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2013 gxseries- Thank you, that link helps a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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