The edge is lettered all around. The coin looks like silver, but perhaps a low alloy. It is ~33.65mm in Diameter; weighs ~19.7grams Thanks for looking...and your comments! wlw
Actually what exactly does the edge show? I believe there are three different varieties from this year. If it has the letters "AG", it's from St. Petersburg; one star is from Paris and two stars from Brussels mint if I am not wrong...
Looks like Brussels: ** pretty plainly. Other edge shots just to be thorough; what else does it indicate there on the edge?
Nice! It's definitely from Brussels Mint. Somewhat common but hey, this is one of the very few years when Russian coins were minted overseas, other than France, UK, Japan. (I might have missed some mints?) The edge if I recall correctly stands for pure silver - 4 zol 21 d which is an ancient Russian weight system.
Thanks! That we bit of arcana is a major treat. Russians really do many things in their very own way, eh? wlw
Actually we should be grateful for the Russians to introduce decimal coinage in the early 1700s. Otherwise we would be stuck with fraction coinage. 1/8 reales, 24 thaler, 15 cents etc.
People who deal with miles and ounces every day should not really have a problem with that. But yeah, the rest of the world ... Interestingly, even the late Soviet Union still had a 0.15 denomination (and socialist Romania had a 15 bani coin). Decimal based, but I have always found that peculiar. Christian
The origin of 15 kopek is an odd one. The first pattern of such was attempted during Peter III in 1762. This was never released into circulation. The first 15 kopek for circulation was struck in Catherine II era in 1764. It was struck till 1794 and was not struck again until Nicholas II era in 1860. They were struck till the end of the Russian empire, restarted again during Soviet era and finally ended with the fall of communism.
Nice coin - these roubles are pretty common, but they have really appreciated in value over the years - when I was first collecting 30 years ago, worn ones went just over melt. Nowadays I am rather surprised at how high they go on eBay.
I hate to imagine how much good numismatic materials were melted down / destroyed during the communist era. Those were some hard times and coins were probably 'luxury' items. The same applies to Chinese numismatic. I believe the prices just reflect how scarce some items are despite historical mintage figures.
Not sure what the Russian-Polish situation was in 1898. But Poland had been split up between various countries. It had occasional warfare with Russia, and the two nations have, frequently, had an uneasy relationship. Would Poland have been ruled by Russia in 1898 ? Maybe not.
I've read that Marie Curie naming an element Polonium was a risky political move since Poland wasn't a country at that time.
As for the Kingdom of Poland ("Congress Poland"), basically yes, see here. But since that coin is a Russian ruble anyway ... Christian
Poland at one stage was ruled by Russia. You might be able to pick up some interesting coins. This is an example of a dual denomination coin: 1.5 rubles - 10 zlot
During my first visit to Russia, on a study abroad program in 1993, the ruble was trading at around 1000 per dollar. However, the pay phones only took the 0.15 (15 kopek) coins. Because their nominal value was practically zero they could not be found in circulation even though they were needed. To meet the need, food kiosks sold them for 15 rubles each. Early post-Soviet free enterprise in action.
