All Counterfeits.

The variety is pretty remarkable. I wonder what the source of these is, there in the Czech Republic or elsewhere (say, China)?

The 1757 1/2 Rouble shows the correct portrait of Empress Elizabeth. The image was made using a crude transfer process so there is little fine detail but the design was copied from an actual coin.

This is a very common forgery - routinely referred to as a novodel. It is of course not an actual novodel (these are not authorized restrikes). The community of forgers merely uses that word to disguise their work and cover their tails.

I would suggest that anyone interested in Russian coins from this era check "novodel" daily. You will see all of these coins being sold openly as fakes. There are 47 as of now.

I do daily searches of the coin section using each of the following search terms:

Counterfeit
Forgery
Fake
Replica
Copy
Bogus
Fraud
Restrike
Novodel

This way I can keep up on what the more "honest" dealers are selling as fakes. Anyone interested can view coins that are known NOT to be genuine and then take clues for identification of improperly described coins in pictures.

A very similar 1755 (using only slightly altered dies/molds) is being offered here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Russia-Roub...261821478712

This seller from Israel is buying from the same manufacturer but is using smaller less detailed photos yet he also provides a clear warning that his stuff is FAKE.

Notice the surface of the fields on the 1757 coin for a very standard clue to forgery. Here is a sketch - the vast majority of coins that exhibit these clues will be FAKES.