Sgt Stavka Posted August 7, 2015 Report Share Posted August 7, 2015 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extant4cell Posted August 7, 2015 Report Share Posted August 7, 2015 They used to look like that until 1914: 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: that was lost on some of them in 1916: but not on others: 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: 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigistenz Posted August 7, 2015 Report Share Posted August 7, 2015 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. Sigi . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Stavka Posted August 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extant4cell Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 Last coins with regular Russian eagle: http://www.m-dv.ru/catalog/king,21/year,1917/coins.html Last coins with eagle of temp. government: http://www.m-dv.ru/catalog/king,21/year,1918/coins.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candidate Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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