This gem (imo) arrived today. I've found that you can readily buy high-grade examples of these types if you want to spend a lot of money. The trick is finding circulated coins at a reasonable price with nice patinas. A lot of them have damage, corrosion, uneven strikes, deposits, etc. I'm thinking it was probably a psychological and political ploy to mint bronzes this large. People like to feel wealthy, even if it's a bit of an illusion. A few of these in your pocket and you'd feel like a rich man... I'd love to see some of yours!
Here are a few of my nicer ones. You can see my entire graded set here: https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=196284 It's the number 1 set on NGC. I know, it makes almost no sense to get these graded but I'm this far along and can't stop. My goal is to complete a date/mintmark set.
That's pretty impressive! Are there some dates or mint marks in the 5 kopeck series that are as tough as the rare large cents?
If you look at reported mintages some of the years/mintmark combinations are very high. What is tough is determining the surviving population. Any of the EM (Ekaterinaburgh) mint marks are common. Some of the years have some really nice overstrikes. Like this one:
Here are some of my different dates. Nowhere near as nice those that you guys posted, but I think I paid about $5 each when I got them in some bulk lots about 15+years ago. No Siberian ones (I wish)
Wow. The ones I've had did not approach that one for quality. It's nicely centered and struck, and I like the color on it as well. I see other folks have posted some really nice ones, too. It isn't really worth trying to find the pictures of the ones I had- they were pretty typical. (But I got them from a $20 pick bin.)
I have only one of these coins: Russia 5 Kopeks 1779 Catherine II (Catherine the Great) Copper, 40 mm, 50.01 gm
I don't agree. Some EM coins can be very expensive. In 1797 5 kopek coins were overstruck using older dies. These were overstruck over 1796 10 kopek which were overstruck over older 5 kopek. 1796 5 kopek EM is the most common of this type but there are scarcer years. 1791 EM comes to mind but I can't remember if there were other years too. The biggest collection that I know online is sigi. His website http://www.sigistenz.com