Hi, does somebody know why one side of this coin is blank and how do I tell if its because of a factory error? Found this old Russian coin. On the front its written in Russian: чистаго серебра 4 золотн 21 доля I can find a similar coin but I cant tell what year is it because of the back missing Similar coin: https://www.raritetus.ru/stoimost-monet/carskie-monety/aleksandr-i/serebro/1-rubl-1810-spb-fg-11179/ My coin:
The coin has been mounted. Looks like it was deliberately ground down on the back, probably for jewelry purposes.
I have asked couple of times but so far no luck. Atm trying to figure out if it was deliberately done or not. Cant find same coin with only one side to ask someone. If its done deliberately does it mean the coin is worthless compared to other coins with both sides? When I got the coin it was as it is and have been a long time like that. Not sure if it was mounted in the past. If it would be me I would mount the coin without erasing the back cause its creating extra work the way I see it.
the blank side was ground down after leaving the mint. you can tell by the fact that there is a rim on the front of the coin but no rim on the rear. It was most likely ground down to make some sort of love token but was never carved.
I wonder what one does for a coin flip .. head you win, tails .. you flip again until you get heads ? Back in the old jewelry days sometimes people would want a coin facing to be put in a bezel. Sometimes they wanted it in a bezel with a full back so they could inscribe something on the full back. Of course, coins that are too thick would have to be flatten on the backside to fit. But unless you know the history of this coin, who knows, but it was definitely ground down. Of course in the old, old days, they would just drill a hole in the coin to attach to a necklace.
Maybe will keep it as my con flip coin and and start choosing heads from now on. Yeah who knows what they did back in the day. For me it would be too much hassle to ground down but maybe the person wanted the silver he got from grounding it down.
Truthfully it would take all of a minute to grind it down on a grinding/polishing system that most jewelry places probably have.
On a bench grinder 10 seconds but the surface is not nice and level. In my opinion there has been a struggle.
what jeweler would use a "bench grinder" ?? you have it in hand so I don't know and I haven't delved into the image of the quality of the flatness. Think of a flat surface wheel where you change round flat sanding or polishing discs (if you google "cabber grinding" you'll probably find images of small home type stuff). So when you put something on top and just hold down with pressure it just grinds away. Nice and Flat. Change the disc for different grinding/polishing effects. of course, if someone does it at home without the proper equipment it would be a struggle and have unevenness. But if done by a jewelry with the proper equipment it is very fast, very flat. No need to polish much as it would be hidden anyways.
In one of the images, the backside doesn't look 'ground' down, so much as worn smooth. The remnants of the Russian Imperial eagle insignia can still be seen, The inscription on the front of the coin translates to "Pure silver 4 gold 21 share". It is a 1 ruble coin from Imperial Russia, ca. 1828. You will find a beautiful example of the coin at http://www.fcoins.ru/catalog/catalogrimp/catalogrimp17918.asp.
On the other hand, maybe the factory just ran out of that side, and rather than stop the whole assembly line, just sent them out with just one side. It could happen!
Is it possible that this is a split coin with wear? The uneven surface does not look like ground down. More like a split. Weight and thickness vs. complete coin?
The missing side looks like it was worn rather than ground off. Since it was mounted at one time, it's possible that the one side was exposed to rubbing and wear over the years while the other side was protected. May not ever know for certain but this sounds like a reasonable explanation
Looking at the perimeter, it is probably more likely artificially produced rather than wear and rub, a lot of parallel scratches. Maybe then it spent some time in the ground, or maybe the reverse was destroyed by corrosion and the back ground to see if it could be made into something.
