Peter TG - does anyone know a reference for this medal?

[marv]

When I was in St. P. last year, I went, of course, to the Peter and Paul Fortress. For me, a big draw was the mint which was there as big as life. Very unassuming building. I found the little store off to the side of the courtyard. Very few people seemed to care about the mint or the store. I went inside the store and looked at their offerings. I was looking for Peter the Great memorabilia that I could afford, and I found this medal that memorialized the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. P. that occurred in 2003.

 

I don't have a book on Russian medals, and I haven't been able to find anything about this medal online.

 

If someone can instruct me on embedding picture files, I will upload the pictures. They are jpg files.

 

thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

[IgorS]

Diakov's books on medals cover 1672 to 1917

Shkurko's book on medals covers 1919 to 1991.

 

I am not aware of a book on modern Russian medals.

 

What did you want to find out?

 

Click on "More Reply Options" (next to "Post") and then click on attach picture.

There is a size limit.

[marv]

This is a medal commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg by Peter the Great. Cost me 2500 roubles. I was looking for some information about it: number minted, designer, silver content, etc. I've attached the pictures. I believe there were a whole series of medals issued by the mint about the anniversary of the city. Thanks for the help.

[one-kuna]

i was wondering too if any catalog availble for mint production

[IgorS]

These are probably question to Shkurko, but I do not know how to get in touch with her.

[one-kuna]

_{Last time I had a connection with her through third party agent - she says she is too busy}

[freak]

nice medal

[marv]

I sent the question to the mint's informational email address ( info@mintspb.ru ). I'll let you know what I find out. It seems that someone would be documenting the 300th anniversary mint products. The other thing that is of interest is that the grammatical ending of "St. Petersburg" on the medal is an "oo" = "У". Is that genitive case, i.e., possessive (300 years "of" St. Petersburg)? If I type that into Google translate, it terminates with an "a" not a "y". I assume that the Russians know the correct ending and that either I have used the wrong English or that Google translate has used the wrong ending for the Russian equivalent.

[extant4cell]

It is correct, it means that 300 years belongs to St.Petergurg(у) (example: "ему 5 лет" in Russian means "he is 5"). Russian grammar is very complex, it's hard to explain in simple terms. I'd say it's somewhere between Hindu and German in complexity... If you know both you should have no problem learning Russian.

[marv]

I took Russian for two years in college and became fairly good at it. I also had a total of seven years of German between high school and college. So I know that Russian grammar is much more difficult than English and considerably more difficult than German in which I am almost fluent. I don't know any Hindu. Thank you for answering as I know the subtleties of grammar in Russian can be hard to decipher for us non-native speakers.

 

It's always interesting to me that most Americans that I encounter think that the Russian alphabet is the most difficult part of learning Russian. They're always surprised when I tell them that, for me at least, the alphabet was the easiest thing about learning Russian.

[extant4cell]

It is an interesting commemorative medal. Peter's head is half turned. Judging by the price you paid (~$70) it is a silver medal made on a piece prepared for silver coins (collectable investment coins, as they call them). I wonder if it is described in modern coin catalog. It probably even has a value in silver roubles, just not on the actual medal (coin).

 

They say that Russian language belongs to Hindu(Indo)-European group of languages. Funny thing you mentioned that - I kind of remember Russian, but I still don't know English alphabet... You put a gun to my head and I won't be able to recite it from A to Z (or whatever the last letter is) I just never tried to learn it. Damn, if it only was that easy - learn the Alpha-Beta-Theta and you know the language!

[gxseries]

Is there a mintmark SPMD anywhere on the medal? Any letters on the edge?

[marv]

To the left of the word "основан" on the reverse, there is a very small plaque. Under a microscope, it contains two logos that are too diffuse to see under high magnification. Below the logos are the following:

 

Ag 925

33.63г

 

So this means it contains exactly one troy ounce of pure silver or 33.63 grams of .925 silver. The edge is absolutely perfectly finely vertically reeded - there is no edge marking.

 

The two logos would probably tell who designed it, but they are not sharp enough under a microscope to make out. The frosting of the silver is too apparent and obliterates the logo design since it's so small.