Hello! Please help me identify a coin! It's a fake or original? http://antiquesfake.ipb.su/index.php?showtopic=1867
You already identified the coin. According to forum users replies in your link, the coin is not a fake. IMHO this is not a fake as well.
Thank you very much for your response. I read that there is identified, but wanted more time to make sure. I have such coins have not yet seen. Thanks again for the quick reply.
Agree, the coin is real. The old dirt or crud near the rim is so authentic looking that unless it were a contemporary counterfeit from 100+ years ago, --and frankly there wasn't anything to be gained by faking such a coin at the time-- the coin is almost certain to be real.
Siberian man, you really don't know what you are looking at. It's a rather scarce variety. The coin is struck in Brussels mint. The stars seem to have defects which some call it the bird tick marks. And also with the letters "b" in rub"le", it's of a different variety. To say this is common - please show me more examples of this particular coin.
Brussel Mint, 1897, 26000000 pcs. St. Petersburg Mint, 1897, 18515000 pcs. I've got mine for 17 $ (5 years ago). Brussels Mint is much numerous than St. Petersburg Mint.
Actually, the value of one rouble in that particular period was like the value of $50 or even $100 in US today. Maybe even more, you could buy A LOT for 1 rouble back then. It was definitely worth counterfeiting back then and there was a lot to gain from it. Its not a rare coin, but I agree that this is a rare variety, those two letters are definitely a mint error. Not sure about the premium it adds to the coin, but there must be such for error collectors.
I do not recall ever seeing a fake Nicholas II common date Rouble contemporary or otherwise. Would think there would be fakes everywhere if the purchasing power were many multiples of the silver content at the time.
I don't know about silver coins faking proportions, I do know that there were plenty of fake banknotes, guess it was just easier and more profitable.