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Help locating mint mark initials on 1915 silver kopeks (15 and 20)


Sgt Stavka

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I was wondering if anyone can help me with locating the mint marks on the coins named above.

The only letters I have found on them are below the Tsarist eagle where they say B and C (in Cyrillic of course).

Are these the mint initials? I have earlier kopek coins that have and A and C there as well. What do these mean?

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They used to look like that until 1914:

 

15_kopeek_1914_goda_VS_SPB_438.jpg

 

But from 1915 they loose the mint marks, however still keep the mint master's initials B(V)-C(S) that belong to Victor Smirnoff on some:

 

15_kopeek_1915_goda_VS_439.jpg

 

that was lost on some of them in 1916:

 

15_kopeek_1916_goda_2190.jpg

 

but not on others:

 

15_kopeek_1916_goda_VS_440.jpg

 

The reason they loose the SPB mint marks in 1915 are not clear to me, but I know that some of them were minted in Osaka (Japan) in 1916. Perhaps, they were looking at minting coins somewhere else, not in SPB, so in preparation for that the dies lost mint marks.

 

Similar was seeing on 1861 15 kopecks (and others) they were minted in Strasbourg or in Paris. Only these coins kept the mint mark, but lost mint master's initials:

 

1_5040c1801d96b.jpg

 

 

 

Nothing unusual, just a practice that was adopted at the time... In 18th c., let's say, a lot of coins were minted at temporary mints with mint marks of main mint that they were subsidiaries of. Hope this helps.

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1915 Russia was in war with Germany. СПБ (St.Petersburg) looked too German and was omitted for that.

At least this is what I remember having read somewhere. :read:

Sigi

 

.

 

 

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Thanks, this helps a great deal.

 

Two more questions...

When did the Russian government stop minting coins? I know

that 1917 coins are somewhat expensive and I haven't been able to find

any for 1918 in casual searches.

Was there a gap between the Tsarist period before Soviet production took over?

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Last coins with eagle of temp. government: http://www.m-dv.ru/catalog/king,21/year,1918/coins.html

 

These are actually a local (regional) issue.

 

When did the Russian government stop minting coins?

Was there a gap between the Tsarist period before Soviet production took over?

 

1) Last issue of imperial type coins was in 1917.

2) First issue of Soviet type (in RSFSR) was in 1921 (though coins minted in 1921-1923 were actually put into circulation only in February of 1924).

 

So "the gap" was 3 years long - 1918-1920.

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