"The Recoinage of 1796: The "Cipher Series""

[DAJ]

http://monety-rossii.com/the-recoinage-of-1796-the-cipher-series/

 

Greetings:

This is an interesting article on the "Cipher Series" of 1796. It states most of the coins produced were novodels, which does not seem to fit the definition.

Most 1796 cipher coins that I see are novodels and costly.

 

For the recoinage of 1796, most of what was accomplished would have been done

through overstrikes.

 

Can anyone speculate as to when these novodels that we see on the market might

have been produced? Aren't novodels special order coins never intended for

circulation? Another basic sort of question.

 

Best - Dwight

[bobh]

http://monety-rossii.com/the-recoinage-of-1796-the-cipher-series/ Greetings: This is an interesting article on the "Cipher Series" of 1796. It states most of the coins produced were novodels, which does not seem to fit the definition. Most 1796 cipher coins that I see are novodels and costly. For the recoinage of 1796, most of what was accomplished would have been done through overstrikes. Can anyone speculate as to when these novodels that we see on the market might have been produced? Aren't novodels special order coins never intended for circulation? Another basic sort of question. Best - Dwight

It is a fascinating story indeed -- the entire history of the Novodels will probably never be completely known due to the vanishing of mint records during the early Soviet regime.

 

There are different classifications of Novodel depending on whether new or old dies were used. But you are correct that these were never meant to circulate, with a few exceptions. For example, gold coins were struck by the Soviet regime after 1918 but used dies of Tsar Nicholas II. This was because they needed a way to pay off obligations to foreign governments which didn't trust the new Soviet government, so they put a lot of 5 and 10 rouble coins into circulation which were struck in the early 1920's.

 

As to the cipher series, many more coins would have survived, of course, if Paul hadn't been so thorough in restriking them back to their original denominations. These were intended to circulate, so most of Paul's recoinage was struck using original dies. One notable exception was the 1793-E.M. 5 kopeck piece which was struck with newer dies.

 

Although there were early novodels made mostly for collectors, the practice really became popular during the mid- to late 19th century. There is a well known letter in the compendium of the Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovitch where the Grand Duke complains to the Tsar that the practice should be stopped because everyone wanted their own personal copies of too many rare coins, and the scarcity of these coins was endangered as a result.

[DAJ]

Thanks very much.

 

So one would no have a clue as to when a 1796 novodel was actually minted - except for the date when the practice was banned. All of the novodels are really like "orphan" coins with there being no knoweldge of background.

 

When one sees one of these coins, the dies often seem to be superior to the dies of 1796. So all of the novodels we see of 1796 would probably be of this sort. I find these Catherine coins particularly attractive, as do many others given the prices the coins command. Best - DAJ

[extant4cell]

I particularly dislike the modern "novodel" with "H" stamped on it... In general, if you read in Russian, here is a collection of information on novodels, nothing specific on 1796 series though: http://coins.su/forum/index.php?showtopic=142423&hl=%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8B