Haven't been on in a few days, but have returned with a need for outside opinions on one of my grab box finds. With the price of silver plummeting, the coin shop was empty, and the nice man who owns the place had no problem with me spending almost 3 hours picking through his foreigns with my list in one hand, and my looking glass in the other. Anyway, among finding 3 silver coins (yay) and a 25 cent proof from the Netherlands, I found an 1899 Russian half kopek that is missing some of the legend. Excuse the photography, but if you click and zoom, look at the fluer that wrap and loop outward and back in. The blossom areas that are below the banner have 3 points where the blossom is. They should have 5. The blossoms on the bottom have 5 points; they should have 6. My definition of "point" is where the buds would flair out. The fluer, meaning the pattern with the 3 diamonds that makes a sort of H. Here are the pics.
Really tried to understand where the error is, but I have no idea what are you talking about. The coin in your photos is not different from other I see online and the one I have.
Ok, the 3 diamonds and the things that flair off and make an H shape with loops at the tips. Those loops have a sort of bud or blossom at their ends. Those blossoms have bits that protrude off of them. The top ones have 3, and the bottom ones have 5. The coin should have 4 on the top ones, and 6 on the bottom ones. I will take a close up pic of the specific area i am talking about.
Ok. Yea, I thought it may have been a mint mark indicator, but I haven't been finding anything online to verify it. As far as I know, this coin didn't have multiple mint marks, so I wanted to get some more experienced opinions. Thanks for taking another look. And if you happen to know where I might find some more info on this coin and possible errors, I would appreciate it.
Going to check a few Russian coin forums, see if there is anything documented already. I`m always curious about varieties, and sometimes errors, although I do not actively collect them, just the standard issues.
This is a die variety and the upper curl with 3 leaves is considered slightly more rare. This variety can also be found in 1895 1/2`s. It seems that the 3 leaves is twice more expensive value-wise than the normal 4 leaves, but the difference is only in higher grade coins, AU and higher. 1899 1/2 kop. in XF sold for $35 USD in one auction.
That's interesting, thank you. Does the missing leaf on the bottom ones denote anything specific also, or is it all the same variation?
Those missing a leaf on upper curl also missing one on bottom curl. So just 2 varieties, 3+5 and 4+6.
We have a members who is Russians semi expert and a New Mod. He my see this if not I will text him to add what he may know.
