Today I was at the flea market and I bought this 1 oz silver coin from a vendor thinking that it was just a 0.999 fine silver round. After I got home I looked at the coin under a loupe to discover that it was only .900 fine silver. Since I though I overpaid for a 1 oz silver round, I went online to see if it was collectible. After some research, I found that it seems to be part of a 4 coin commemorative set with a low mintage (5000 according to Wikipedia). The coin unfortunately has been handled and has some minor smudge marks or foreign material on the surface. Is this coin worth sending in to NCS for preservation/grading or should I just keep it as a conversation piece? Nighthawk
Don"t worry, Sir. You bought a rather interesting & rare coin. This coin is rather rare not only in USA, but in Russia too. My congratulations.:high5:
At reverse-7:00 indicates its fineness. What's interesting to me is that silver's atomic symbol is in Latin alphabet rather than in Cyrillic. I see a smudge at obverse-11:00. That said, it is indeed a beautiful coin! And btw, great job at photographing the specimen. You ask if it should be sent to NCS. What is the delta between what you paid for it and what its typically going for on the open market? For me, in addition to its mintage, that would be an indicator as to whether it should go.
Having it graded is a moot point now. I took the coin to a local coin show and consigned it to a dealer that specializes in world coins. He checked with his contacts and found a buyer that will purchase the coin. This will return the coin to a collector that will appreciate the beauty and rarity of this coin. We did discuss having the coin preserved/graded, but the market value was not enough to justify the cost. He did say that the blemishes did reduce the value slightly but even then, his offer was an acceptable return for my investment. As for photography, the coin was scanned on my flatbed scanner. I have a hard time photographing proof coins because of the reflection but yes I agree that the images turned out good. And I still have the hi-res images to keep even though the coin will move on to a new home. Thanks for the replies especially to Siberian Man for translating the inscription underneath the bear. Nighthawk
Congratulations. There's no way you can get that for melt value so be happy. If that sells under 50USD, I'll be shocked.
I had similar good fortune a few years back to purchase a modern Russian one ounce proof gold coin with a Lynx on it. It too was impaired, looked like someone had sneezed on the coin. In the Go-Go days of later summer 2008, such a coin even raw and slightly impaired would have fetched clsoe to $5000 if I had caught the top of the market with it. I had bought the coin about 24 months before that for melt (around $600 an ounce at the time) and tossed it on eBay. You would have thought I dumped a bucket of chum into shark infested waters. I received a deluge of offers for the coin and sold it out-right for $1800 only to see it immediately relisted and sold for $2500 a week later. This was clear back in 2006. All of the lower mintage modern Russian coins were trading for the same kind of insane premiums between 2006 and 2008. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. In the case of your coin, on a good day you might still get $100 for it, which is still a killing if you paid melt for it. Since the coin is impaired anyway, you might consider cleaning it. Not with dip. Use diluted Windex or other similar glass cleaner, spray, rinse generously with cold water, and then air brush dry the coin. You might be surprised how forgiving gold and silver proof coins can be when cleaned properly.
