These questions are almost going to be left unanswered because of the level of difficulty and lack of numisatic material. If you can answer any one of these, I will be shocked. I did post similar questions in other boards; if you did read them before, I sincerly apologize for wasting your time The following are all Russian coins so far... I have a little bit more to come if you wish 1st question: Massively overweight 1769 5kopek monster coin - a serious error or mintmasters having too much vodka during the winter??? As you can see, this coin is ridiciously too thick of 5.5-6mm and 4cm diameter. Of course, the gross weight will come out to be horribly overweight - a weight of 76.4grams where a similar 5 kopek coin is supposed to be around 40-50grams. Do note that this is much heavier than a Siberian 10 kopeks, which is around 65.52grams. There aren't any heavier Russian coins except for the heavy square plates and the Sestroretsk ruble but those rarely circulated. Now what do you think? An error like this is too ridicious and the heaviest for this time I have come across is at maximum 60grams but nothing hitting over 70grams. This is not a fake 5kopek either as the amount of corrosion seems to be consistent of such coins minted in that era. Do note that 76.4grams is a generous 50%+ of the level of copper allowed to be a 5kopek, and also do remember that coins around that area were minted upon their metal values. You see, this error is too ridicious as it would have passed through too many "checks". I mean even if this was done in the 1700s, this is too ridicious. Firstly you have the planchet that's too thick. Next you have the mintmasters not noticing how thick this is. And when it comes to quality checking, perhaps this one was inside a pile of underweighted 1769 5kopeks and when weighted in whole, must have passed the weight control test. My only reason to explain the whole process is the result of too much vodka party... What do you think? 2nd coin: Genuine Prototype of democratic Russia 1992 100 rubles or just some ridicious fantasy?!?!?! Sorry, I decided to make the scan black and white just in case some silly scammer decides to use the image and 'sell' it This was done on two seperate planchets and interesting, I don't know what to say. This design is quite similar to Russia's 1 ruble "The Anniversary of the State Sovereignty of Russia" design. The link is here: Link As you can see, the design seems to be somewhat similar but there are several points to be made. We can assume that this might be some ridicious fantasy. Some aspects on the reverse: 1) there are no such Catheral minted with a gold 100 ruble denomination. 2) there is the mintmark of MMD, or Moscow mint which is the traditional mint ever since the Soviet era that gold coins were to be minted there 3) Specific denomination of the gold content and mass weight are included and the font is consistent with the previously minted Soviet coins. On the obverse, 1) The angel is somewhat similar but different 2) The building on the right seems to be incomplete 3) The theme of the supposely commemorative ruble is similar as you have similar text. With all these points to be considered, this is some sort of trial coin or some ridicious fantasy made up?!?!?!?! 3rd question: 1730 Anna ruble counterstruck / overstruck on what?!?!?!? As you can see this Anna ruble was double struck, possibly done by another drunk mintmaster on vodka. But you should note of the ridiciousness of this poor Anna ruble. As you can see, a ball was counterstruck on her mouth, as if it seems to make her want to shut up or she was too ugly. However, do take a look at the red line, it seems to be very confusing. There is another layer underneath this coin which I quite haven't quite fill the lines in... because of the level of ridicious difficulty... If you have any idea what the underlying image could be, feel free to add in! Sorry for these three questions - will wait in antipication what kind of answers will come!
gx, I love contests.. I haven't looked up the others but the big copper 5 kopeks are not errors nor are they uncommon.They were minted by Catherine the Great between 1763-1796 and are thought to be one of the heaviest circulating coins ever.Here are pictures of mine..1771 and 1780. The obverse has her initials E for Ekaterina together with I for Imperatritsa all under the numerals II (she was actually Catherine the second).The reverse is the Imperial double eagle with the words fo FIVE KOPEKS.Do I win something???
OK..now I'm going for extra credit points. Here is Catherine's son Paul I (2 Kopek coin,about the size of a U.S. silver dollar)
gx, I have a question for you.I got this coin and was told that these were made from excess silver wire? is this true and what does the legend on the reverse say? I would appreciate any information you might have.
Sorry Mikjo0, you might be a bit too early in winning this contest. I actually haven't thought of giving out prizes... well if I did, this thread will be filled with the most nonsense idea... so I am not going to voluteer at this stage... But yes, back to the question, you see the question lies upon the ridicious weight issue. It is known that 5kopek coins are somewhat heavy and not suprising overweight. I did mention that most 5kopek coins minted in that era are supposed to be around 40-50grams. Yet, this particular 5kopek is 76.4grams, which is 50% more than the supposely maximum weight or 90% extra of the least weight 5kopek. That is where the figure is a worry. Of course, any could say that overweight 5kopek coins are common. But I have checked at least 20+ 5kopeks with the dealer here who volunteered to help me out and his heaviest was around 60grams. Of course it's no big deal, but 10 grams meant 1 kopek and 20 grams meant 2 kopeks etc. Or rather the exact value of a 1 kopek is supposed to be around 10.24grams (if you wanted to be specific...) so by having a weight of 76.4grams, this would easily mean a 7.6kopek, not just 5 kopek which is it's face value. And that is where my question lies... You can't just joke around that this is a 5kopek as this is where the mint would lose it's money on... About the wire money, yes they are struck upon crude excess silver wires. Honestly I don't know how long this was done for... as I am not really a wire money collector... but I know the rough ideas. This method was the only way Russia minted such small silver kopeks with their technology. The main reason for this was because there was a period of time when massive silver rubles existed but no small silver coins were minted. Or rather, Russia seriously had no idea where their silver mines where and chances are, there are times when such rubles were overstriked on European silver coins!!! So when someone wanted half of the change, or half of the half or some fractions, like how the rest of the Western Europeans did transaction long time ago, coins were cut up. However this faced serious problems as not long as silver rubles were running out, but there was no serious control of how small or rather how varied the weights could be. And this is where wire money comes into the picture of small change. Long excessive silver pieces of wires were rolled out and two dies of the obverse and reverse struck the silver wire stiminously and hence you get impressions of a "coin". But of course, as the result of using a wire, you get crude shapes. As the coins were finished, they were then clipped off from the wire and hence, the term wire money... I don't claim to be a wire money collector so I can't quite tell what the reverse could say... usually some of the legends don't even appear well because they weren't fully struck!!!
any help? can anyone help me identify this i know lil about this i found it metal detecting i have no clue if its a coin i know it says 17 something but its too worn to read the rest of the date there is writing on the back that i cant make out it appears to be copper almost the size of a silver dollar thanks rwaloven
The following are all Russian coins so far... I have a little bit more to come if you wish 1st question: Massively overweight 1769 5kopek monster coin - a serious error or mintmasters having too much vodka during the winter??? No it isn"t, Sir. Russian mintmasters having not too much vodka during the winter. It"s usual 5 kopeks of Catherine the Great. Look at my coin...
My god, this is a really really old thread. Siberian Man: the 1769 5 kopek that I have is extremely overweight: 76.4grams. The next heaviest 5 kopek that I have seen is around 65 grams - nothing over 70 grams other than the Siberian 10 kopek and copper plates. I believe there are novodel 5 kopek coins struck on 100grams planchet.
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible (Ivan the Great, as russians called him) Russian silver coins minted from a silver wire.
No. You have a good and original coin. Weight of 5-kopek coins of Catherine the Great was scrupled (do You understand my wrong English?).
Paul I (1796-1801) was very good, candid and... unhappy man. "Last European knight" - it was his nickname. Vile murders killed him in March 1801.
3rd question: 1730 Anna ruble counterstruck / overstruck on what?!?!?!? As you can see this Anna ruble was double struck, possibly done by another drunk mintmaster on vodka. But you should note of the ridiciousness of this poor Anna ruble. If you have any idea what the underlying image could be, feel free to add in! I think, it"s overstruck on a rouble of Catherine the First (1725-1727). Or Peter the Second (1727-1730).
I have a few ancient coins that were found in Israel that are also really thick...almost too thick for a coin I'de think. I haven't been able to identify them yet but the first coin there reminds me of them.
