Featured Completed entire Soviet commemorative silver coinage (excluding Olympics)

This was a rather difficult challenge. Would have been a lot easier if I didn't put silly restrictions on myself.

I started this challenge back in 2008 and was determined to find Soviet coins struck from 1988 to 1991. This must be complete with COA and the boxes. Turns out this was not a good idea. If I decided to go with the coins alone, I would have completed them a long time ago. What makes this remarkable is that there's only 12 coins to this yet it took 6 years to hunt them down; the last coin taking at least three years to find! Please note that I was not actively hunting them down.

Note that starting from this year, there is a huge influx of counterfeit / replica of Soviet silver commemorative coins. These are VERY dangerous counterfeits - you might as well check out ebay and have a look. Sellers are still honest enough to claim that they are replicas but if you didn't look at them carefully, you can be fooled.

Presenting a couple of the more beautiful Soviet silver commemorative coin (IMHO)





My photography skills aren't the best and as some of these coins were taken a few years back, I wasn't that good in using the older camera (plus inexperience with taking good photos)

So what was the last coin that I was chasing? Turns out it was this coin... I don't know why this was so difficult - I was certain that Captain Cook or the World Children Summit would be a lot harder.



I don't think the box is original however I guess I'll leave it as it is for now.

The rest of the coins can be seen here:

http://gxseries.com/numis/rus_new_type/soviet_ag_comm.htm

Hope you enjoyed it!

P.S. My recommendation is NOT to start this - unless you want to start chasing them for many years to come. (Or just go for the coins alone)

 

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That's a great accomplishment, and an excellent presentation on your site. I think my favorite design is the Peter the Great Fleet.

 

Thank you for sharing. Nice collection!

 

Very nice! That is a set to be proud of.

 

Cool coins and having those with boxes and COA is a serious challenge, but they`re available if you can pour lots of money on it.

Most Russian collectors, as far as I can see from online forums, are not really going after them.

 

these coins are awesome. great collection. would you believe some of these coins are on my want list for my "coins with small coins on the coin as the design" collection. yup wow you have some great ones. envy is the word.
here is my present "coins on coins..." thread/collection so far: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/to...mall-coins-as-the-design-on-the-coins.224141/

 

Very nice set. I can remember leaving the USSR in the last days and attempting to exchange my ruble notes back into "valuta" hard currency, but they couldn't because they didn't have any - but the teller asked me if I would want some commemorative coins like 5 rubles etc for face value instead - so I took them instead of keeping the banknotes.

 

Yeap, good times. I know a guy who got his paycheck with some coins wrapped in a newspaper. When he opened it, there were 10 rouble 1980 Olympic coins.

 

I think it's a matter of time when people find out they are truly unappreciated and prices will rocket up. At a low mintage of around 20,000 - 40,000 ish, you might think that's a fair bit. These coins have been poorly looked after, with many without their boxes and COA. I reckon for every 1 of each coin with the box and COA is sold, I can probably find 20 coins without it. Factor that with 12 coins and you can see why this becomes absurdly difficult. Some series are just impossible to find duplicates. Hunt them around and see if my figures are about right. You may be surprised.

On top of this, these silver coins must have caught the attention of counterfeiters. It's not that they are particular rare or extremely expensive - you can still get them under 100 dollars each. Yet counterfeit / replicas are sold at 10 dollars each.

Let's take an example

Genuine:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/41275-Russi...1574057?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item4ada641d29

Counterfeit / replica:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RUSSIA-USSR...8230993?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item4d241affd1

Yes, yes, I know you can start talking about no "copy" stamp but that's besides the point. Terrible times.

The easiest I reckon is the 1991 Gagarin set followed by 1988 1000th anniversary of Baptism of Russia. The rest are just difficult.

 

thanks for that info. I will probably get these coins way down the road. good to know.

 

I tend to agree, but the question is, in how many more years. They are already expensive even without original boxes. In the near future they will continue to be unpopular and hence the prices will not rise significantly, IMHO.

There are a lot of examples when prices tripled over less than a year for really inexpensive coins, like 3 rouble WWII victory series 1992-1995. Red book bimetallic series is another example, multiplied in about 2 years.

Disgusting indeed, can be found for cheaper on Ali. They are easily detected since their details look slightly different, but buyer must know whats "novodel" (wrong description) and notice the "silver plated" issue. They rarely say copy or replica in their eBay listings.

 

Congratulations GX, these are a very nice set indeed. Btw, here's a leaflet with their prices in 1990:















...i wonder if any of those 1992-2005 issues would have been struck in silver...

Jose

 

Great looking collection/photos! Looks like you did a good job on the photos but the lighting's a bit off. Puttered a bit with photography years ago and it is key to inside shooting. Again good job and thanks........