Collecting Russian Currency 1 1

[MalachiteMaid]

Hello friends,

I am new to coin collecting, and very inexperienced. I am primarily interested in Russian currency. I bought one coin from APMEX, but was a little nervous. I see here on the forum that most of you seem to back them. There was no grading service listed under the grade. 
 
Are there any experienced collectors out there that have recommendations on specific resources geared toward collectors of Russian currency? I have seen a lot of good-looking novelty coins, and would be easily fooled. 
 
Also, I would love to see your pieces. (The 1912EB Napoleon’s Defeat rouble looks really neat, and I saw that a certain version of the rouble is the most faked coin in the world!)  

Sorry to be such an amateur; I’m really excited. 

[Jason Abshier]

@MalachiteMaid Russian coin collecting is a small crowd there are some here who may collect coins from Russia not many that I know on here exclusively collects just Russian coinage.. A good place to lookup information is Krause world coin book … maybe do online search for Russian coin catalog ? APMEX is large dealer they can be trusted , I’ve only bought few silver rounds from them in past , however some of their world coins and USA coins prices can be a little to high you can probably find them cheaper else where … I myself don’t collect Russian coinage , but I mostly focus on German coinage … I’m sure someone on here will chime in on some Russia coinage
 

As for Russian paper money ? If that’s what you’re referring to as “currency” there’s a separate chat forum for paper money from around the world I provided the link if you haven’t been over there yet 

 

https://boards.pmgnotes.com/forum/3-pmg-forums/

Edited May 10 by Jason Abshier

[MalachiteMaid]

Hey Jason,

Thank you so much for your kind and informative reply. I am interested in collecting both bills and coins, but have started with coins. I will check out a copy of the Krause book, and hopefully a few Russian collectors will be around and I can meet them eventually.
 
I am not in the hobby to resell or anything like that. I wouldn’t be competing with any serious collector who might be protective of trade secrets or information. 😄 I just enjoy historical items from that country and would love to have some neat coins. I bet your German collection is very cool. 
 
It’s great to meet helpful people that know their stuff. I really appreciate your comment, and now I can rest easy on my APMEX purchase. Thanks again! 👍 

[Moxie15]

Do not apologize for being a novice; when it comes down to it we are all noviceses. You show wisdom by knowing and admitting you do not have great knowledge. As with any country there are many sub groups to collect. The ones I hear most about in Russian coins are Gold and wire money. Find what you like and collect it, do not let others try to take over your collection, Find what you enjoy and enjoy collecting it.

[Jason Abshier]

On 5/10/2024 at 4:20 PM, MalachiteMaid said:

Hey Jason,

Thank you so much for your kind and informative reply. I am interested in collecting both bills and coins, but have started with coins. I will check out a copy of the Krause book, and hopefully a few Russian collectors will be around and I can meet them eventually.
 
I am not in the hobby to resell or anything like that. I wouldn’t be competing with any serious collector who might be protective of trade secrets or information. 😄 I just enjoy historical items from that country and would love to have some neat coins. I bet your German collection is very cool. 
 
It’s great to meet helpful people that know their stuff. I really appreciate your comment, and now I can rest easy on my APMEX purchase. Thanks again! 👍 

It’s nice to see other world coin collectors 👍 getting into the hobby , as for my German coin collection,  I have some of them posted in “post your most recent acquisition World” you can see them there … sometimes some other collectors do post some Russian coinage on there too on that post you’ll have flip through pages to find them …. Have fun collecting and good luck ! Look forward to see you post some of your coins you get …

 

On 5/10/2024 at 7:49 PM, Moxie15 said:

Find what you like and collect it, do not let others try to take over your collection

Like how you said that strongly agree with that statement ! 

[mlovmo]

I suggest that you do searches using Russian Cyrillic alphabet to find the Russian-language sources in this field of numismatics.  The best sources of any coins are (usually) to be found in that country's source language.  You'll have to translate the books, unfortunately, if you aren't literate in Russian.  Some facility, but not necessarily complete fluency, in the Russian language will be helpful, too.   I am a researcher of Korean coins, and without some Korean, in addition to knowing how to use online translation machines, I wouldn't have gotten far with my research (and yes, you DO have to learn HOW to use them if you are going to use them!).   First, break up all paragraphs into sentences, then sentences into phrases.  That seems to work better with translations.  The problem is knowing the language enough to know where the phrase breaks are in the first place.  Also, make friends with native speakers of Russian who are also collectors.  Find a native speaker near you who can help you also confirm your translations.  The arcane language of numismatics or the coining industry are another barrier in the First Language.  Many native speakers don't know the terminology.

I suggested First Language searching to a collector of Croatian coins at another forum, and a whole WORLD of information suddenly appeared where there was previously NOTHING.  The "Krause Catalog" is SOOOOO lacking in information, if it doesn't contain outright errors that are decades old.

Edited May 12 by mlovmo

[Henri Charriere]

On 5/12/2024 at 11:51 AM, mlovmo said:

....  The best sources of any coins are (usually) to be found in that country's source language.... 

Truer words have never been written.  There I was sitting at my table one day mulling my options.  It just seemed every search for my F20FR GRs would yield 90% more inapplicable results that I could use, when:   Drawing on the French I learned in high school, I dove in after asking myself which country would most likely have the coins I am interested in: FRANCE... Of course, and the rest is history.

[MalachiteMaid]

Hey guys,

Thank you for your invaluable perspectives and info.
 
My Russian is primitive at best, but I enjoy the language and using it in my quest for coins will only help me improve. 🙂 

I did find a directory in Russian, but any attempts to go to the Russian mint itself are currently thwarted due to ongoing political strife. I was curious about ordering coins directly from foreign mints; I didn’t know if anyone had any experience with that, or if it was even legal. They have had some really nice sets out in the past few years, so I was thinking maybe I could do that for future releases.

Also, I saw that the Krause book is pretty outdated, at least for my purposes. It appears that there is no digital version, which is a bummer since that would be handy in pocket. 
 
Thank you all for being so supportive and kind. I will definitely be on the forum with questions, and just in general to check out your new acquisitions. It’s so cool meeting other foreign coin collectors, no matter their country of interest.
 

[Jason Abshier]

@MalachiteMaid have you looked up Russian coins on MA-shops ? A bunch European coin dealers are on there they get stuff directly from European mints just as USA dealer gets stuff from the USA mints and sell to general public … however ! Some prices on MA-shop can be wacky from one dealer to next so you have to really do some serious research before purchasing a coin on MA-shops … I’ve ordered tons of German coins from MA-shop and older coin/catalog books for (reference purposes only) 

[mlovmo]

On 5/20/2024 at 4:59 PM, MalachiteMaid said:

Hey guys,

Thank you for your invaluable perspectives and info.
 
My Russian is primitive at best, but I enjoy the language and using it in my quest for coins will only help me improve. 🙂 

I did find a directory in Russian, but any attempts to go to the Russian mint itself are currently thwarted due to ongoing political strife. I was curious about ordering coins directly from foreign mints; I didn’t know if anyone had any experience with that, or if it was even legal. They have had some really nice sets out in the past few years, so I was thinking maybe I could do that for future releases.

Also, I saw that the Krause book is pretty outdated, at least for my purposes. It appears that there is no digital version, which is a bummer since that would be handy in pocket. 
 
Thank you all for being so supportive and kind. I will definitely be on the forum with questions, and just in general to check out your new acquisitions. It’s so cool meeting other foreign coin collectors, no matter their country of interest.
 

There is a "digital version."  It's called Numismaster (numismaster.com).  The Krause catalog has migrated there.   Behind a paywall.