Russian Gold Coin Collecting

Russian Gold Coin Collecting
Prior to reign of Czar Nicholas, Russian gold coin included gold kopeks, ducats, poltinas, and novodels. These coins are now extremely rare. The most common Russian gold coin available today are the 5 to 150 Rouble gold coins.  The 5 Rouble russian gold were issued from 1886 to 1894. These coins were 21 mm in diameter. From 1895 to 1905 these coins were made in a smaller 18mm diameter. These coins are slightly larger than a U.S. Quarter Eagle gold coin. Each is made from 4.3 grams of .900 fine gold. The coins were minted at the St. Petersburg mint where Alexander Redko and Appolon Grasgov worked as mintmasters. In 1898, 10 Rouble gold coins were added featuring Nicholas II. The mintage was only 200,000. A 10 Rouble coin will have agold content of around .2489 of an ounce and is also .900 fine gold. Alloys are added to maintain hardness and durability.	All pictures used with permission of HeritageAuctions Ltd.
At the start of World War 2, 50 tons of these oldRussian imperial gold coins were stored in the Norge (Norwegian National) Bank. To escape the german advance, the coins were shipped to the United States. Safe in American vaults, they were used by the Norwegian Government in Exile to meet wartime expenses. Later, this gold financed Norway 's joining the International Monetary Fund. And finally they were sold in 1988 in a sale so large, it is recorded by the Guinness Book of Records. This large cache of russian gold probably accounts for most the imperial coins in circulation today. Another source of russian imperial coins was a cache that was reportedly stored in the vaults of Russia's Central Bank even during the communist rule. They were discovered by the bank' employees who searched through the vaults following the endof the Communist government in 1992. The new Russian Federations Central Bank encapsulated each coin with a sealed displaycase. That makes these coins some of the most sought after imperial russiangold coins.
The Chervonetz
The communist government did issue its own gold coinafter the removalof the Czar. The only denomination of gold coin issued by thecommunists was the 10 Roubles. This became known as the Chervonetz There were three different issues of the Chervonetz.The original (pictured) wasmade in 1923. A second version was made under the USSR (CCCP) was madein 1925 but all except one are thought to have been melted down.
A third issue was made from 1975 to 1982. Only coins of this third type can be commonly found. The average price for a coin of this type is around 110 -120 dollars US. If you ever find one of the first two issues however, these would command an extremely high price. In May of 2008, the 1923 Chervonetz pictured was sold for over $7000.00 by Heritage Auctions in Long Beach, California.

Modern Russian Gold Coins

Russian Gold History

Vladimir Kroupnik's Gold History Page

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