Hello! Does anybody here know who the designer was for the 1921-22 Russian 1 Rouble coin? I've been searching forums for several hours and come up empty handed. I know the mintmaster is AF Hartman, and his initials are located on the edge of the coin. The only Russian designers I can find from the era are MA Kerzin, whose name I can only match with coins from the 1910s, and Ivan Dubasov, who engraved paper currency and stamps in late 1920s and on. Any help or direction you can kindly provide would be much appreciated!
First rouble of RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialis Republic) was produced at 1921. It was a big silver (.900) coin (the weight - 20 g.). At the same time all of those coins were in circulation since February 26 1924. There is a version that many of coins wich were released at 1922 were minted with the date "1921". That is why coins with the date "1922" are much more expensive. As for mintmasters: A.F Hartman and P.V. Latishev.
Here is an image of the coin: As Evgeny notes this coin was minted in 1922, dated 1921 and not circulated until 1924 when the ruble was finally revalued and backed by precious metals again. In 1924 the design was also updated: Both of these coins have the legend "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" or Workers of the World, Unite! The design change with the 1924 dated coin was necessitated by the formation of the USSR in 1922, the 1921 dated coin was issued under the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
It was a bit of an anachronistic issue when you think about it. It had RSFSR like it was a restrike but a modern date. They were only for sale for export, ie capitalist collectors. Up into the mid 1990s they traded at a slight discount vs. gold value because they were from the USSR. Then Russians started collecting them and bringing them back, now they trade at a slight premium and are not as easy to find. Mezhnumismatika was a seller of these through the Bank of Foreign Trade of the USSR into the early 1990s, along with the gold medals ie 17 grammes etc. I only have the Tolstoy medal so far, but I would like to find a nice Valentina Tereshkova medal but they are usually hairlined from cleanings.
So were the names of the designers published at all? Even these days some mints do not do that, for various reasons ... Christian
Thank you, guys, for your assistance! This is all incredible info. Those silver rubles are beautiful pieces and such historic relics...
As for the 15 kopeek, I have never really understood why a 0.15 denomination would make sense if you have 0.10 and 0.20 ... Makes giving change more difficult in my opinion. Then again, I am known to be math challenged. Also interesting that the half ruble above is a 50 kopeek coin. After that you had the poltinnik coin ... Christian
The Russian coins in the early USSR era were 1/2 kopek, 1 kopek, 2 kopek, 3 kopek, 5 kopek, 10 kopek, 15 kopek, 20 kopek, 50 kopek and ruble. The 15 kopek coin was actually a fairly popular denomination, I remember using them in the USSR. The coin that was scarce to find was the 2 kopek, because it was the price of a payphone call.
https://moneditis.com/2016/05/22/rublo-рубль-ruble-1924/ П. Л. – П. В. Латышев, начальник монетных переделов Петроградского (до 1924 г.) и Ленинградского (с 1924 г.) монетных дворов — в гуртовых легендах полтинников 1922 г., 1924 – 1927 гг., рублей 1921 – 1922 гг., 1924 г.; θ. Р. или Т. Р. – Томас (Фома) Росс, начальник монетных переделов Лондонского монетного двора — в гуртовых легендах полтинников 1924 (буква θ – фита была изъята из русского алфавита реформой 1917-18 гг.). https://moneditis.com/2016/03/08/рубль-1921-и-22-полуточка-rublos-de-1921-y-1922/ https://moneditis.com/2015/05/10/todavia-mas-rusas/
