Hello, being an amateur I would like to know what is the value of this coin, and an opinion on year 1818's role in 19th century history. how rare or common is this piece of silver? http://foto.mail.ru/mail/oshistory/1/2.html http://foto.mail.ru/mail/oshistory/1/3.html
Welcome to the forum oshistory. According to the Standard Catalog of World Coins ("Krause") 19th Century 3rd Ed., you have posted a picture of C#130, with a St. Petersburg mint mark. A total of 16,275,000 roubles, containing 20.73g of .868 silver, with an actual silver weight of .5785 oz., were minted in 1818. That was the largest single year's mintage in the 16-year life of the design (1810-1826). The only other year with a mintage in excess of 6-million was 1817, when 11,775,000 were produced. Based on those figures, and the relatively low value shown in Krause, I would think that the 1818s are relatively common. I'm not convinced that Krause values are as accurate for Imperial Russia as they are for some other countries, and there is a 4th Ed. which I haven't seen, but the 3rd - issued in 2001 - gives values of $15 VG, $30 F, $75 VF, and $150 XF. There is no value given for Uncirculated coins. Based on the photo, and without any expert knowledge on how weakly or strongly these were struck, I would grade yours at a fairly strong F. I don't see any evidence of harsh cleaning, although a coin of that age has probably been cleaned at some time in its nearly 19 decades of existence. This is a coin-oriented forum my friend, on which we don't generally discuss historical subjects except as they directly relate to coins, their design and use.
Oshistory,I can tell you that the Russian monarch in 1818 was Czar Alexander I (ruled 1801-25).He was one who had a bit of difficulty in dealing with Napoleon Bonaparte.
