1911 Russian 3 kopeks

[UK Decimal +]

I've just bought a job lot of 118 mixed (mainly UK bronze) on eBay for £3.00 and there's a few interesting ones amongst them although most are pretty scruffy.

I will post the queries or interesting ones a few at a time.

This one is in pretty good condition but I know nothing at all about it.   Can you assist, please.

Bill.

[RHM22]

This is a Russian 3 kopeks, Y#11.2, mintage 9,467,000 it catalogs (in my 2009 Krause) as $3 (£1.87) in F, $5 (£3.12) in VF, $10 (£6.25) in XF and $20 (£12.51) in uncirculated. If I had to guess the grade, I'd say at least fine (unless there's some damage I can't see), so if the catalog's values are correct, this coin would be worth more than half the cost of the entire lot. That said, the values expressed in the catalog are rarely 100% accurate.

[Figleaf]

The texts on you coin seem to be:

1911 года - year 1911
3 копейки - 3 kopeiki
три копейки - three kopeiki
медная россіиская монета - Russian copper coin
с. п. б. - mintmark of St. Petersburg (S. P. B.)

Peter

[UK Decimal +]

Interesting stuff to a UK decimal collector!

Thank you all very much.   I thought that it would be worth showing a few of the coins in the package as so many seem interesting.   Maybe post a few more tomorrow as it all adds to the interest.

Bill.

[translateltd]

Couple of other interesting features - you will notice that "1911 GODA" is incuse rather than in relief; and also that the first E in the words MEDNAYA and KOPEYKI looks like a crossed "b" rather than the E as in Peter's transcription: that letter was one of the victims of orthographic reform post-revolution, in which numerous superfluous letters were ditched from the Russian alphabet ("i" was another).  The "crossed b" sounded exactly the same as E, and was replaced with it accordingly, so Peter's transcription of those words is correct in post-revolutionary spelling.

[ciscoins]

The coin was minted at the period of reign of the last Russian emperor Nikolay II.
Their mintage was 9,466,667 pieces. ( http://coinss.ru/Tirash/Tirash4.html )
Condition G or VG; about USD 1 in this condition.

[Figleaf]

Was spelling also changed? I would have expected русский, rather than россіиская, or are these different words?

I'd grade this coin at F+. There's still a good amount of detail on the eagle.

Peter

[ciscoins]

Was spelling also changed? I would have expected русский, rather than россіиская, or are these different words?

русский means Russian as the ethnicity (the biggest ethnos in Russia, among many others)
российский means Russian as something that belongs to the country, to the Russian state (all the ethnoses are together россияне)

The pronounciation has not changed, but the orthography changed. Before the revolution 1917 Russian language had two different letters for "ye" (e and Ѣ) and three different letters for "i" (и, i and v).

[Figleaf]

Thanks all. Good discussion.

Peter

[UK Decimal +]

Great.   All this from a coin which cost me less than UK£0.03 as part of a package of mixed UK coins!

Bill.

[ciscoins]

I'd grade this coin at F+

Unfortunately this forum doesn't allow to post large images. I will try to use external image hosting to show you the same coin type in F, VF and XF grade as I see it.

This is F grade:


This is VF:


This is XF:

[UK Decimal +]

Looking again, I'd put it at between F and VF.   The design is such that what I assume to be the obverse is very prone to wear which is about the amount that I would expect if my theory about it being something brought home after the first world war is correct.   I've worked out that it cost me UK£0.0267 which can't be bad.

Bill.