Rare coins of Russia in the history of numismatics

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Anything can be a collectible in our world. From wrappers to works of art or cars. Passionate collectors are ready to part with a round sum of money or go to any madness to get a rare copy. Antique coins are a vivid confirmation of this. Other numismatists are ready to sell their souls in order to be able to replenish their collection with one or another symbol of commodity-money relations of different times. But the coin is different from the coin. Of course, all the banknotes that have ever been used on the territory of the country are of historical value. But it is the rare coins of Russia that are of numismatic value. Those that were minted in a limited edition, or those that have survived only in single copies. Here we will talk about them, and at the same time we will plunge into the history of metallic money in Russia.

Zlatniks of Prince Vladimir are considered the most ancient coins. It is assumed that they were minted after the baptism of Russia. Only about 10 pieces have survived to this day, and thereforetheir value in collectors' circles will be exorbitant, even if the condition of the coin is far from ideal.

The unique coin is the golden Ugrian, which appeared under Ivan the Third. The Hungarian ducat served as a prototype for minting. In honor of him, the second name of this coin appeared - ducat.

At the beginning of the 16th century, another extremely rare coin was born - the hryvnia. The thing is that up to this point, the hryvnia was exclusively silver. And under Prince Vasily the Third, gold was used to mint this coin. On one side of it, George the Victorious is depicted defeating a snake, and on the other, a two-headed eagle. Doesn't it remind you of anything? As they say, everything new is a well-forgotten old.

But let's continue to consider such rare coins of Russia as gold Ugric ones. In addition to the end of the 15th century, they were also minted under Boris Godunov (chervonets) and under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (double gold Ugric). Created specifically for royal awards. It is now known that only one copy of the first coin and two copies of the second one have survived.

Until now, we have been talking about hand-minted coins. Peter the Great introduced mechanical coinage. But not all of his innovations caught on. So, in 1718, a two-ruble gold coin was introduced into use, some copies of which are still preserved to this day. But her silver counterpart was a complete failure.

Elisavetin Gold also remained at the trial stage - a coin with a face value of 10 rubles, which did not receive approval.

In 1825, rare coins of Russia were supplemented with another sample, which never came into use - the “Konstantinovsky ruble”. The Grand Duke Konstantin was to become the heir of Alexander the First. The leaders of the mint hurried and issued a silver ruble with his portrait. However, the prince abdicated, and the coins were withdrawn from circulation. Now only six remaining copies are known.

Of course, this is not a complete list of samples so desired by numismatists. There were many more in the history of Russia. However, when describing the rare coins of Russia, it would be wrong not to mention our days. In modern Russia, there are also many rare coins. There are many collectors who collect them and are not interested in tsarist times. There are quite a lot of people whose collections are dedicated to a certain topic. Often in such collections you can find 10 commemorative rubles. What is their cost? A lot of them were released, and therefore it is unlikely that it will be possible to get a lot of money for them. Among modern coins there are also more expensive ones. But that's another topic.