Peter II 1728 Rouble - Rare Variety?

In 1728 in Russia dies were individually hand engraved by an artist. That meant that each die has numerous differences from all others. Today, we live in the era of hubs - so variations that are noteworthy today are so MINOR in comparison to hand made dies that there is NO COMPARISON.

If you search Heritage Auctions they have a very closely related die pair that was graded by NGC as VF 25. Based on that coin yours would grade about XF with a scratch noted on the face.

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleN...&lotNo=28035

The coin I located may have been struck from dies made by the same engraver or his apprentice. The die styles are very similar - it has a closed top O but there is a clear extra line over the top as if a "third" stroke was used to close the figure. It could point to the way the artist made his O.





Since the letters were each individually engraved (not even punched) in this case - these kinds of varieties are very common and no one except the most extreme specialist would even be aware of the distinctions. A complete collection would require one from every die pair used that year and in all probability no one even knows how many die pairs were used.

I did notice a far more interesting variation in the Tsar's crest.

Here is your coin




The NGC encapsulated coin has quite a different look.






As you can see the two dies are quite different.

In my estimation the three figures over the eagle are more significant than the open O.