Here are some wire coins from the 1600s, during Czar Mikhail Feodorovich's reign. They are pretty small but still pretty neat. I picked these up at a coin shop in Omaha, NE last year. Talk about coin prices and values going up, I paid $1.00 apiece for them then... Have a Great Numismatic Day Bone
Getting these for US$1 was a real bargain.Have you looked these up in the 17th Century Krause catalogue yet? you'll be surprised at what these silver Dengi & Kopecks are priced at. Aidan.
Indeed, 1 dollar is way too cheap. Krause is totally useless when it comes to pricing Russian coins and often 30-80% of the real value at best, but you know what I mean. Here is an example currently offered by Alexander Basok, a major dealer in Russian coins http://www.rustypennies.com/catalog/russian_wire_coins.html If you are lucky, you might be looking into hundreds
I have one of Ivan the Terrible and I think i paid $20 for it.Looking at the prices in the website GX provided,I'd say that's not so terrible..hehe
It might be worth 20 dollars or so. Prices vary at an extreme, but yes, Basok's prices are indeed a bit high but often offers rather scarce ones. But feel lucky - the cheapest I have seen is 7USD a piece. But the most important thing is how much details is left on the wire coins - and if you have all of the legends there, you can call yourself very lucky. Some of the rarer ones are the copper wire kopeks, and the rarest of all, gold ones too!!! Unfortunately, I don't collect such coins, beacuse if I do, I know that I will be stuck into them for an awful long period of time... To make matters worse, this is already going into an extreme specialized field, where typical catalogue book like Krause will not do the job because new varities are popping out every year as I hear. Now that is a good reason why the prices are going insane. As well as, it's not too funny when you try to find out the prices of such catalogues - often with no real prices as well as being expensive at the same time. Nevertheless, that is one of the best bargain you have there bone.
The guy had little plastic bags with 5 & 10 each in them, priced accordingly. I heard some conspicuous hammering sounds coming from the back of the store but was told to "pay no attention..." LOL Ben
Finally it happened! This is my favourite topic. First of all here you can find the links to the catalogues of Russian hammered coins http://www.kgcoins.narod.ru/ - Ivan the Terrible, Fedor Ivanovich, etc. http://www.peter1cheshua.narod.ru/ - Peter 1 the Great. The articles are available both in Russian and English so it will be rather easy to know the details about your coins. Indeed you had a nice bargain. My congratulations. Unfortunatelly not all of them are Mikhail Fedorovich coins as you were told. I do not see both sides of the coins but it is enough to identify them. If you need more detailed information mail me and attach another sides of the coins I'll explain. So I'll try: 1. The other side is necessary. I think this is Fedor Ivanovich (1548-1598) 2. 2,3,4,7,8 - Peter 1 the Great (1696-1717) 3. 5, 6, 9, 10 - Mikhail Fedorovich (1613-1645) Greetings from Russia!
Perhaps, since you made such a bargain, you have to get a catalogue book for them. I am not too sure what is the best out in the market, but I beg you not to get Krause or such. I should get hold of a decent catalogue that deals with wire money but haven't found the time and finance for such.
See my post above The catalogues are free for usage. They do not reflect the prices but the most valuable coins have number indicators... The price for a regular coin usually starts from $1 and can be many times more than $1 for unique ones.
Coopra, Many thanks for the information. I'll try to post the other sides of them today. Again, Thanks Ben
Sorry for mistake. The big kopeck is Ivan the Terrible. The kopeck from the right side (#7?) has BI letters which means year 1712.
