I'm looking into buying these coins off eBay at the moment. I already purchased $30+ worth off the same guy on eBay, I just haven't paid yet, my question is, are they real? The 1925 15 Kopeck, he had several others which were worn in a similar manner on the globe/sickle/hammer, but, he also had a few that weren't worn. He is from Ukraine, has 12 items sold already, all were much older Russian empire coins, no one has complained yet.
Perhaps you should look on the internet at all the "not rare coin fakes" being offered. Hey, it's your money. Who knows if the grainy surfaces are due to the coin or the photo. Best of luck.
I collect early USSR myself, but only in brilliant uncirculated(not easy) The primary issue I see with these particular coins in the photographs is that they have been cleaned - recently. Fakes do exist for this era of USSR coins, but they are primarily for the rare stuff ie rubles and some of the aluminium bronze coins that are quite rare. Minor silver like 10, 15, 20 kopeks are not usually worth faking.
Krause 2016 15 Kopeks 1923 KM Y#82 .500 silver, mintage-27,580,000 grade/value F-12-$10.00 VF-20-$20.00 XF-40-$30.00 15 Kopeks 1925 KM Y#87 .500 silver, mintage-112,709,000 grade/value F-12-$3.00 VF-20-$4.00 XF-40-$7.00 15 Kopeks 1927 KM Y#87 .500 silver, mintage- ? grade/value F-12-$3.00 VF-20-$4.00 XF-40-$7.00 15 Kopeks 1928 KM Y-87 .500 silver, mintage- ? grade/value F-12-$3.00 VF-20-$4.00 XF-40-$7.00 Krause values may differ than real life market value.
for these coins probably so. the only 1 I think would have value would be the 1923 and I am guessing it would be maybe half of that... may $4-5 ?
Well, at the end of the day, I'll be paying just over $1.30 per coin. I don't know, I guess I'll take the risk now and find out later. For the most part, I think it's poor photography, though I do think some might be fake, I also think some might be real. I have another issue to address if possible. I bought these USSR coins, and found maybe ten with this issue, they're 1960's and 1980's that mostly did this, I took a knife and scrapped the break point on one of them and it looked like pretty solid copper, have any of you ever seen such a thing happen?
This is true, but I don't think people should just assume they're fake because they're Russian coins or being sold from Ukraine.
There is nothing obvious at the moment to call them counterfeit. These were struck in 0.500 silver and there are none that's really classified as key dates other than coins from 1921. But mind you, Soviet coins have been counterfeited for good reasons. Some common ones are key date coins as well as the 1921 and 1924 ruble. Why? Remember the time when silver price hit 50 USD / ounce? A flood of them appeared out of the market. They have since died down a bit but you can only assume it was profitable for counterfeiters to make them.
I paid good money to good dealers but now I'm a little worried. I know the 50 kopeck is cleaned but I like the rubles.
There is nothing wrong with all of them. Nice looking 1924 ruble. I guess if you do want a 1922 ruble, this is where one should pay more attention as this is a key date coin.
I was about to bid a dollar for one of these, then I asked the seller if it was a replica and he said yes. Very disappointing. I don't even want it for the silver, I just want it for year one's sake.
Sorry to hear that but thank goodness the seller was honest. They are pretty good as the out-of-focus photos fooled some posters here.