Russia: Imperial Gold Coins Restruck By Soviet Government

According to Krause, 27,600,000 10 ruble coins were struck in 1899. No mention of restrikes, as it does with some 20 francs (France, rooster / Swizerland, 1935D), Austrian ducats or 20 florint 1892 coins. Restrike or not, it's an astounding amount of coins produced that year, specially considering that for other dates only 125 units were coined.

Y# 64 10 ROUBLES
8.60 g., 0.900 Gold 0.2489 oz. AGW Ruler: Nicholas II Obv:
Head left Rev: Crowned double-headed imperial eagle, ribbons
on crown Note: Without mint mark. Moneyer's initials on edge.
Date Mintage F12 VF20 XF40 MS60 MS63
1898 200,000 — — 299 500 600
1899 27,600,000 — — 299 450 550
1899 Inc. above — — 299 500 600
1899 Inc. above — — 299 500 600
1900 6,021,000 — — 299 450 550
Common date — PF60 7,000

The high mintage figure no doubt includes the restrikes.

As for how, when, and why, I suspect most of them were made in the period prior to the 1930s, when most world governments still did not recognize the USSR as the legitimate government of Russia. A gold coin with the old Tsar would have been trusted by gold dealers outside the USSR far more than an otherwise identical gold coin covered in Communist symbols. So, a matter of pragmatism over ideology.

They certainly wouldn't have been selling them within the USSR.

Sap, perhaps the guy on the coin is not the Tsar, but Stalin with a fake beard. I will analyze it and try to spot the differences with other imperial coins.