Posted 02/03/2013 12:14 pm
My advice: ignore any 1958 Soviet coins. For all practical purposes, they are patterns (much like the larger denominations of that series).
Okay, if you can get any of them at a price that meets your definition of "affordable", go for it. But otherwise ignore them.
You do have the 1925 1 and 2 kopek right? They were infamously found fairly late (and the 2 kopek remained ridiculously rare until this century, when metal detecting finds in Bashkortostan lowered its price to something slightly more reasonable like $800). Some argue that other denominations of the 1924 type large coppers (i.e. 3 and 5 kopek) could've been minted in 1925 - but so far no examples had been found, and I doubt that there ever were any.
(And then there's the 1942 2 kopek. Mint records indicate a mintage of only 450 coins; none had ever been found, and there are reasons to suspect that these 450 coins minted didn't actually bear the 1942 date.)
...Er, who am I talking with? A guy who owns multiple 19th-century silver rubles and a few from the 18th century? I couldn't possibly match your collection - even with my lucky recent [well, October-ish recent] grab of a rare 1728 1 kopek for only $20 (a true jewel of my current 1 kopek type set... I'd have to check the edge though, I've heard it's supposed to be rather fancy).
Okay, if you can get any of them at a price that meets your definition of "affordable", go for it. But otherwise ignore them.
You do have the 1925 1 and 2 kopek right? They were infamously found fairly late (and the 2 kopek remained ridiculously rare until this century, when metal detecting finds in Bashkortostan lowered its price to something slightly more reasonable like $800). Some argue that other denominations of the 1924 type large coppers (i.e. 3 and 5 kopek) could've been minted in 1925 - but so far no examples had been found, and I doubt that there ever were any.
(And then there's the 1942 2 kopek. Mint records indicate a mintage of only 450 coins; none had ever been found, and there are reasons to suspect that these 450 coins minted didn't actually bear the 1942 date.)
...Er, who am I talking with? A guy who owns multiple 19th-century silver rubles and a few from the 18th century? I couldn't possibly match your collection - even with my lucky recent [well, October-ish recent] grab of a rare 1728 1 kopek for only $20 (a true jewel of my current 1 kopek type set... I'd have to check the edge though, I've heard it's supposed to be rather fancy).
