Russia gold 5 Roubles pre-revolution

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Does anyone collect these? I've been seeing a lot of them up for sale lately, and many of the years don't seem too expensive. Looks like a good series for collectors new to gold coins to get their feet wet with before getting into U.S. gold or British sovereigns. Any opinions out there?

GDJMSP

You're right of course - there are a lot of them out there. So many in fact - that that is why they are not expensive. And Russian coinage is very popular right now.

As always - one should collect what one likes. But if you are interested in US or GB gold - you're not going to learn much about it by collecting gold from other nations. US and GB gold coins are the two most popular nations there are. Because of this - their coins cost the most. And since they cost the most - you stand to lose the most monetarily if you are not thoroughly familiar with the series.

I might suggest that you could be better served by spending your money on books about the coins you wish to collect so that you might learn about them instead of spending your money on coins of other nations in an effort to learn about gold coins in general.

Askari

Most dates are easily acquired. I think there are a couple of challenging ones, though. I haven't looked at the series in several years.

Makarovii

If you have a passion for Russian gold or the 5 Rouble in particular, go for it. Otherwise, I think they are just something different to own.

NGC MS66 1902 5 Rouble I picked up a the Long Beach show several months ago.

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It's like I said. Getting into U.S. or British gold coins is an expensive prospect because of all the interest like someone else stated. Same with gold bullion coins. I want to really learn about the qualities of gold, like what it's supposed to look like in coin form and how it feels in hand, possible storage hazards and any special care that is required. Learning all these things can be very expensive with a popular gold series, so I want to get my training wheels in something that isn't going to kill me financially if I mess up and Russia seemed like a good place to start because they seemed reasonably plentiful without too many ultra rares like you would find in something like $20 St Gaudens and even in high grades most of them don't look like they would break the bank and they are accessible because of the lack of competition.

bosox

I agree with your thoughts. I am working on a mint state Canadian Victorian cent date set. In order to understand about the series I not only bought the books, but completed the set in VF-EF-AU as a learning experience about the dealers, the markets, grading, and varieties. Mint state is a different game than circulated, but I learned a lot collecting the lesser set.

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I delved briefly into the Canadian and Mexican coin arenas after I bought a book about North American coins that contained US, Canada and Mexico. It was far from complete, but it got me started taking an interest in foreign coins. I had to put all coin interest aside for a number of years, but picked it back up again recently. I shudder when I look at my Mexican stuff, though. I got really obsessed back then and I feel those old urges coming back now and again. I got heavily into debt chasing that stuff down and it almost broke me. I don't buy on credit anymore, though, so everything I have is mine.

I have also been having strange urgings towards British silver crowns for some reason, but they seem to be the European equivalent of Morgan dollars and the competition looks just as fierce.

GDJMSP

Depending on how deeply into the field of Russian coinage you wish to go - you'll find more than your share of rarities. There are many examples of Russian gold that will make most others pale in comparison when it comes to cost. But if you stay with the coin of Nicholas you won't have that problem.

I understand your reasoning though about wanting to learn and therefore starting with coins of another series that are less expensive. It's just that I think you will learn much more about the series you ultimately wish to collect if start out collecting them. You don't have to start out with the expensive examples to do this - you can begin with coins of lesser grades and lower values and still learn.

Just my thoughts.