alexei Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 I can't see much detail on the reverse. The obverse does look a bit suspicious because it has so much green stuff on it. What about the edge? Can you post an image of it? You can compare it to Kazakov's edge reference page here: http://homepage.hispeed.ch/~coinsareforever/images/kazakov/edges.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexei Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 On Kazakov's reference it is identical to number 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexei Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 although coin seems uncleaned all edge letters are black and through microscope it seems that it filled with too much dirt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 The edge letters look OK to me. How can you be sure that the coin wasn't cleaned in the past? Since the edge letters are incuse, they can collect dirt. But cleaning this kind of a coin won't remove the dirt inside the letters. In fact, if some kind of polish containing abrasive powder or paste (e.g., silver polish) was used to clean the coin, some of that stuff may have been caught by those letters. That, and not the original dirt (if any), is what may have filled up those cavities. At least to me, they look like they are partially filled with some dark material. Since you reported that the weight is correct (8.6 grams), I will venture to say that the coin is probably genuine, but was subjected to a harsh cleaning at some time in the past. Whatever chemicals were used, caused the copper particles on the surface of the coin -- wherever they might be exposed to the outside environment -- to corrode, hence the green speckles. But it is hard to say given just this information. You may have also seen this post about a fake 1899 gold 10 rouble coin that I bought once: http://www.coinpeopl...?showtopic=7903 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexei Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Bobh, thank you for all your help, I only wishing it to be genuine and wanted to make sure that I am starting my collection with real coins. Yes I have read the post about 10 rubles and that's why I decided to ask. Thank you very much!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Bobh, thank you for all your help, I only wishing it to be genuine and wanted to make sure that I am starting my collection with real coins. Yes I have read the post about 10 rubles and that's why I decided to ask. Thank you very much!!! You're welcome! About all of this discussion re: genuine vs. fake ... I think it's important to realize that there is always a (hopefully small) chance that something will turn out to be fake in spite of our best efforts to the contrary. That's why it is so important to "buy the book before buying the coin". Taking this risk (and minimizing it) is also part of the excitement and challenge of being a collector, IMHO. Some people will only buy coins in third-party holders, or slabs ... this might seem to be the safest road to take, but every once in awhile a fake coin appears inside even one of those holders. With Russian coins in particular, there seem to be more fakes (and more dangerous fakes) out there than with most other coins. Fortunately, there are lots more places today on the internet where good images and information about genuine coins can be found than 10 years ago. I like to think that this forum is one of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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