Hi cointalk! So a few weeks ago, I was able to go to the SAC. coin show. And i picked up this bag of russian coins. the dealer knew nothing about the bag, and when he opened it, it seemed as if he had never opened it before in his life. anyway, i was told that the 97' coins may be "patterns" (can someone please tell me what those are?) however it might have just been put together for novelty. Also, what would be the value if the 97's are patterns? When i got this, it looked as if someone had bought a mint bag from russia, then added a few other russian coins. Estimated value if it is just a novelty set put together by someone? Estimated value if the 97's are truly patterns? Also, i need someone to translate what it says on the bag. thanks! pics:
An educated guess from me thinks it says " bank of russia" on the bag. They are just coins that the Russian mint produced for circulation in 1997... almost like a mint set
Wrong translation on that card. Instead of "pattern" they should have typed "type". The Russian language version got it right though. Seems like its a 1997 type coins and as it says, they are examples of coins minted for circulation. On the red card, around the double headed eagle, it says "Central Bank Of Russian Federation", the bag says "Bank Of Russia". Seems like a novelty item, not official mint product.
The Russian text is translated by the facing English. They used the word pattern where we might have preferred 'type' or 'issue'. The word order is a little different since it starts with 'In this sack'. Around the Russian eagle is Central Bank of the Russian Federation which you can confirm by comparing the same words inside in the part with facing English.
Basically these are the 1997 circulating coins from both mints in Russia: Moscow and St Petersburg. The bag has the MMD initials. I would say that instead of packaging all the coins types issued that year (for circulation) in packaging that we get (uncirculated sets) they have simply put them into the bag and sold it as a 'bag'. So it seems to be the actual mint product. That being said, I am not sure that it has a huge value or anything. You might want to pm to Siberan Man and ask him what the value of these might be.
How can you tell there is an eagle on Morgan dollar? This is how an actual sealed bank bag of coins looks. Mint bags look pretty much the same, the label is different color though. OP got a novelty item, pretty much similar to this:
