Constantine ruble
Encyclopedia
The Constantine ruble is a rare silver
coin of the Russian Empire
bearing the profile of Constantine
, the brother of emperors Alexander I
and Nicholas I
. It was prepared to be manufactured at the Saint Petersburg Mint
during the brief Interregnum of 1825
but has never been minted in numbers and never circulated in public. The fact of its existence, classified in Russia until 1886, leaked into European press in 1857.
According to Ivan Spassky, there are eight genuine Constantine rubles of two different types. Five are proof coins
complete with edge lettering. A hypothetical sixth coin of this type was probably minted in December 1825 and disappeared without trace. Three coins of the so-called Schubert ruble type have no edge lettering. They are, most likely, intermediate work-in-progress proofs illegally removed from the Mint.
Three Constantine rubles are currently preserved at the Hermitage Museum
and the State Historical Museum
in Russia and the Smithsonian Institution
in the United States. The Hermitage also possesses the three genuine sets of press dies
, in different stages of completion, seventeen tin
work-in-progress samples and Jacob Reichel's original design on parchment
. All other genuine Constantine rubles are in private collections outside of Russia.
The so-called Trubetskoy ruble is a fake Constantine ruble manufactured in the 1860s in Paris, a rare collectible in its own right. Two original Trubetskoy rubles are preserved at the Hermitage Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, the third is privately owned.
silver alloy, 35 mm diameter, 20.73 grams gross weight. Pure silver content of the coin is prominently written on the reverse as 4 and 21/96 zolotnik
s; hallmark
is pressed on the edge, in cyrillic alphabet
. The Hermitage coin actually weighs 20.63 grams, the Historical Museum coin weighs 20.55 grams, but the Smithsonian coin weighs only 18.52 grams. The Schubert rubles without edge lettering weigh 20.75 grams (Schubert ruble), 20.57 grams (Richter ruble) and 20.89 grams (Garschin-Fuchs ruble). The fake Trubetskoy ruble in the Hermitage collection is the heaviest at 21.48 grams.
Obverse and reverse patterns are aligned at 180 degrees (top of obverse matches bottom of reverse). Mass-produced rubles of the period usually had their obverse, reverse and edge lettering pressed in a single operation. The automated presses produced nearly perfect alignment of edge lettering relative to obverse and reverse surfaces. Constantine rubles, on the contrary, were literally hand made on simple manually operated presses from blanks with pre-pressed edge lettering. They all display varying degrees of alignment errors.
, was heir presumptive
to his reigning brother Alexander, who had no legitimate issue, until 1823. In 1821–1822 the Romanov brothers agreed that Constantine would step down from the order of succession
in favor of Nicholas. The informal arrangement was sealed by Alexander's secret manifest in 1823. Neither Constantine nor Nicholas were made aware of its existence; the whole country sincerely believed that Constantine is the heir. Extreme secrecy made the Manifest unenforceable in real life. When the news of Alexander's death reached Saint Petersburg
on 1825, Nicholas duly pledged allegiance to Constantine before Alexander Golitsyn, one of three persons entrusted with keeping the secret, could reach the Winter Palace
. Golitsyn convened an emergency meeting of the State Council and presented the Manifest. Council members, now facing an unprecedented dynastic crisis, were unprepared to act as state authority and left the outcome to Nicholas who reiterated his allegiance to Emperor Constantine. Constantine, who did not intend to reign, temporarily became the Emperor of All Russias.
was present at the State Council meeting of December 9, and thus aware of the unfolding dynastic crisis. Nevertheless, on Cancrin authorized making and testing the presses for the Constantine ruble. On the same day he also instructed Saint Peterburg Mint to press an additional run of the medal that was struck in 1779 on the occasion of Constantine's birth.
Saint Petersburg Mint received the instructions on the next day, . Constantine's birth medals were pressed immediately and sent to Cancrin's orders; making of the dies took a whole week. The dies were sized to fit a manual press and could not be reused in automated mass production presses. Tradition held it that the Constantine ruble presses were designed and carved by Jacob Reichel (obverse) and Vladimir Alekseyev (reverse). According to Schukina, Reichel was certainly the author of the artwork, but each of three obverse press dies was carved by its own engraver. All three differ in craftsmanship quality and stage of completion.
The Mint pressed two first proof samples
on , when the Romanovs had already resolved the succession crisis in favor of Nicholas. Actual number of Constantine rubles is debated. According to Ivan Spassky, there were only five. According to studies by Bartoshevich and Valentin Yanin
, there were six Constantine rubles with proper edge lettering, and one of them was lost without trace. Yanin suggested that the sixth missing coin was appropriated by Cancrin himself. The three known coins without edge lettering (Schubert ruble, Richter ruble and Fuchs ruble) were, most likely, illegally retained by the Mint employees or their superiors.
In the evening of Nicholas declared himself emperor. On the next day Nicholas prevailed over the Decembrist revolt
and took full control over the country. Cancrin ordered to halt all work on the Constantine ruble and declared the whole affair a state secret. Two of three pairs of press dies were left incomplete; they, along with five proof coins, tin proof pressings and Reichel's original drawings, were locked in the vaults of the Ministry of Finance. Their existence remained strictly classified throughout the reign of Nicholas I.
In 1866 Bernhard Karl von Koehne published his account of the coin's history; according to Koene, the whole affair was Reichel's private venture. Reichel, wrote Koehne, sent three coins to Warsaw and all three disappeared when Constantine's palace was looted during the November Uprising
. Two samples left in Saint Petersburg were destroyed along with the presses.
In 1873 prince Trubetskoy (1813–1889) challenged Koene's story and published a different explanation of the events. According to Trubetskoy, all five test samples were sent to Warsaw and ended up in the hands of an anonymous Polish plunderer who later emigrated to France. After his death Trubetskoy became his widow's agent; two or three coins were allegedly sold to an American collector and perished in a shipwreck, two remained in Trubetskoy's possession. Russian collectors contested Trubetskoy's account and suspected that the so-called Trubetskoy rubles were fake. After World War II Valentin Yanin
partially redeemed Trubetskoy: according to Yanin, the legendary shipment of samples to Warsaw was a coverup of Cancrin's invention, rather than Trubetskoy's own hoax.
In 1874 Afanasy Bychkov (1818–1899) reported a detailed description of two tin pressings of Constantine ruble from his collection. Bychkov's proofs, according to Valentin Yanin
, were genuine work-in-progress samples retained by Cancrin. Their existence explains the difference between the number of tin proofs recorded in 1825 (nineteen) and in 1884 (seventeen). Yanin theorized that Bychkov could have inherited from Cancrin the hypothetical sixth Constantine ruble, and that it was resold in Europe in 1898.
A 1880 publication by former Ministry of Finance executive D. F. Kobeko confirmed suspicions against Trubetskoy. According to Kobeko, the Ministry still possessed five silver Constantine rubles, three sets of press dies and nineteen tin
samples. It appeared that Schubert's ruble, which lacked edge relief, was a genuine 1825 pressing, but the number of such incomplete pressings and their whereabouts remained unknown. The public also remained unaware that a few months earlier, in 1879, Alexander II of Russia
removed five genuine Constantine rubles from the vault.
Their story was declassified in a 1886 publication by Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich, who owned one of genuine Constantine rubles. Alexander II retained one coin for himself (it is now in possession of the State Historical Museum
), donated another to the Hermitage Museum
and passed the other three to his relatives: Alexander of Hesse
, Georgy Mikhailovich and Sergey Alexandrovich
. The three sets of presses and original artwork drawn by Reichel on parchment
were donated to the Hermitage Museum in October 1884 after the Hermitage director Vasilchikov pleaded the new emperor Alexander III
.
of the Hermitage Ivan Spassky (1904–1990), who examined the Richter ruble in 1962, it is most likely genuine (Spassky wrote that he coin matched the original press dies). A third ruble of this type, the Garshin-Fuchs ruble, resurfaced in Germany in 1981 and is also considered genuine. This find brought the total number of existing Constantine rubles to eight.
Two coins with edge relief are still in Russia, at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the State Historical Museum in Moscow. All others, including the Schubert and Richter rubles, ended up overseas. The collection of Georgy Mikhailovich is now owned by the Smithsonian Institution
, others are privately owned. Auction prices for genuine Constantine rubles rose from 41,000 USD in 1964 to 200,000 USD in 1974 but in 1981 plummeted to 51,000 USD. One of Schubert rubles was resold in 2004 for USD 525,000. The auction company claimed that it was then the highest price record for a non-US coin.
Ivan Spassky summarized his provenance
studies, published posthumously in 1991, as:
The Trubetskoy fakes have become rare collectibles in their own right; two of these are preserved at the Hermitage and the Smithsonian (the latter is part of Georgy Mikhailovich collection).
Numerous other fakes, some of very high quality, circulated in Europe and Russia. They were pressed either from real, mass-produced silver coins of the period, or from soft alloys. According to Ivan Spassky, all high-quality fakes of this kind were pressed on the same set of dies. According to Kalinin, the genuine press dies from the Hermitage are no longer good for minting. During World War II the Hermitage coin collection was evacuated from the city into deep rear. The dies were stored in inappropriately humid conditions that caused corrosion
of the polished surfaces. Speckles of rust on the Hermitage dies, according to Kalinin, forever rule out their use (or abuse) for cloning the Constantine ruble.
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
coin of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
bearing the profile of Constantine
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia
Constantine Pavlovich was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I. He was the Tsesarevich of Russia throughout the reign of his elder brother Alexander I, but had secretly renounced his claim to the throne in 1823...
, the brother of emperors Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
and Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
. It was prepared to be manufactured at the Saint Petersburg Mint
Saint Petersburg Mint
Saint Petersburg Mint is one of the world's largest mints. It was founded by Peter the Great in 1724 on the territory of Peter and Paul Fortress, so it is one of the oldest industrial enterprises in Saint Petersburg....
during the brief Interregnum of 1825
Russian interregnum of 1825
The Russian interregnum of 1825 began with the death of Alexander I in Taganrog and lasted until the accession of Nicholas I and the suppression of the Decembrist revolt on . In 1823 Alexander secretly removed his brother Constantine from the order of succession and appointed Nicholas heir...
but has never been minted in numbers and never circulated in public. The fact of its existence, classified in Russia until 1886, leaked into European press in 1857.
According to Ivan Spassky, there are eight genuine Constantine rubles of two different types. Five are proof coins
Proof coinage
Proof coinage means special early samples of a coin issue, historically made for checking the dies and for archival purposes, but nowadays often struck in greater numbers specially for coin collectors . Many countries now issue them....
complete with edge lettering. A hypothetical sixth coin of this type was probably minted in December 1825 and disappeared without trace. Three coins of the so-called Schubert ruble type have no edge lettering. They are, most likely, intermediate work-in-progress proofs illegally removed from the Mint.
Three Constantine rubles are currently preserved at the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
and the State Historical Museum
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...
in Russia and the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in the United States. The Hermitage also possesses the three genuine sets of press dies
Die (manufacturing)
A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut or shape material using a press. Like molds, dies are generally customized to the item they are used to create...
, in different stages of completion, seventeen tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
work-in-progress samples and Jacob Reichel's original design on parchment
Parchment
Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. Its most common use was as a material for writing on, for documents, notes, or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned; therefore, it is very...
. All other genuine Constantine rubles are in private collections outside of Russia.
The so-called Trubetskoy ruble is a fake Constantine ruble manufactured in the 1860s in Paris, a rare collectible in its own right. Two original Trubetskoy rubles are preserved at the Hermitage Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, the third is privately owned.
Description
Genuine Constantine rubles conform to the standard of silver ruble established in 1810: .833 millesimal finenessMillesimal fineness
Millesimal fineness is a system of denoting the purity of platinum, gold and silver alloys by parts per thousand of pure metal by mass in the alloy. For example, an alloy containing 75% gold is denoted as "750". Many European countries use decimal hallmark stamps Millesimal fineness is a system of...
silver alloy, 35 mm diameter, 20.73 grams gross weight. Pure silver content of the coin is prominently written on the reverse as 4 and 21/96 zolotnik
Zolotnik
A zolotnik was a small Russian unit of weight, equal to 0.1505 avoirdupois ounces, or 4.2658 grams . Used from the 10th to 20th centuries, its name is derived from the Russian word zoloto, meaning gold. It is therefore related to the words gold and yellow...
s; hallmark
Hallmark
A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of precious metals — platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium...
is pressed on the edge, in cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
. The Hermitage coin actually weighs 20.63 grams, the Historical Museum coin weighs 20.55 grams, but the Smithsonian coin weighs only 18.52 grams. The Schubert rubles without edge lettering weigh 20.75 grams (Schubert ruble), 20.57 grams (Richter ruble) and 20.89 grams (Garschin-Fuchs ruble). The fake Trubetskoy ruble in the Hermitage collection is the heaviest at 21.48 grams.
Obverse and reverse patterns are aligned at 180 degrees (top of obverse matches bottom of reverse). Mass-produced rubles of the period usually had their obverse, reverse and edge lettering pressed in a single operation. The automated presses produced nearly perfect alignment of edge lettering relative to obverse and reverse surfaces. Constantine rubles, on the contrary, were literally hand made on simple manually operated presses from blanks with pre-pressed edge lettering. They all display varying degrees of alignment errors.
Background
Grand Duke Constantine, second son of Paul IPaul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
, was heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
to his reigning brother Alexander, who had no legitimate issue, until 1823. In 1821–1822 the Romanov brothers agreed that Constantine would step down from the order of succession
Order of succession
An order of succession is a formula or algorithm that determines who inherits an office upon the death, resignation, or removal of its current occupant.-Monarchies and nobility:...
in favor of Nicholas. The informal arrangement was sealed by Alexander's secret manifest in 1823. Neither Constantine nor Nicholas were made aware of its existence; the whole country sincerely believed that Constantine is the heir. Extreme secrecy made the Manifest unenforceable in real life. When the news of Alexander's death reached Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
on 1825, Nicholas duly pledged allegiance to Constantine before Alexander Golitsyn, one of three persons entrusted with keeping the secret, could reach the Winter Palace
Winter Palace
The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and...
. Golitsyn convened an emergency meeting of the State Council and presented the Manifest. Council members, now facing an unprecedented dynastic crisis, were unprepared to act as state authority and left the outcome to Nicholas who reiterated his allegiance to Emperor Constantine. Constantine, who did not intend to reign, temporarily became the Emperor of All Russias.
Production
Minister of Finance Georg von CancrinGeorg von Cancrin
Count Yegor Frantsevich Kankrin was born Ludwig Daniel von Cancrin in Hanau. He accompanied his father, the mineralogist Franz Ludwig von Cancrin, to Russia in 1797, joining the imperial service and changing his name to Georg. In 1823, he was appointed Minister of Finance and held the office for...
was present at the State Council meeting of December 9, and thus aware of the unfolding dynastic crisis. Nevertheless, on Cancrin authorized making and testing the presses for the Constantine ruble. On the same day he also instructed Saint Peterburg Mint to press an additional run of the medal that was struck in 1779 on the occasion of Constantine's birth.
Saint Petersburg Mint received the instructions on the next day, . Constantine's birth medals were pressed immediately and sent to Cancrin's orders; making of the dies took a whole week. The dies were sized to fit a manual press and could not be reused in automated mass production presses. Tradition held it that the Constantine ruble presses were designed and carved by Jacob Reichel (obverse) and Vladimir Alekseyev (reverse). According to Schukina, Reichel was certainly the author of the artwork, but each of three obverse press dies was carved by its own engraver. All three differ in craftsmanship quality and stage of completion.
The Mint pressed two first proof samples
Proof coinage
Proof coinage means special early samples of a coin issue, historically made for checking the dies and for archival purposes, but nowadays often struck in greater numbers specially for coin collectors . Many countries now issue them....
on , when the Romanovs had already resolved the succession crisis in favor of Nicholas. Actual number of Constantine rubles is debated. According to Ivan Spassky, there were only five. According to studies by Bartoshevich and Valentin Yanin
Valentin Yanin
Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin is a leading Russian historian who has authored 700 books and articles. He has also edited a number of important journals and primary sources, including works on medieval Russian law, sphragistics and epigraphy, archaeology and history...
, there were six Constantine rubles with proper edge lettering, and one of them was lost without trace. Yanin suggested that the sixth missing coin was appropriated by Cancrin himself. The three known coins without edge lettering (Schubert ruble, Richter ruble and Fuchs ruble) were, most likely, illegally retained by the Mint employees or their superiors.
In the evening of Nicholas declared himself emperor. On the next day Nicholas prevailed over the Decembrist revolt
Decembrist revolt
The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...
and took full control over the country. Cancrin ordered to halt all work on the Constantine ruble and declared the whole affair a state secret. Two of three pairs of press dies were left incomplete; they, along with five proof coins, tin proof pressings and Reichel's original drawings, were locked in the vaults of the Ministry of Finance. Their existence remained strictly classified throughout the reign of Nicholas I.
Rediscovery
In 1857, when Nicholas and all men involved in pressing the Constantine rouble were already dead, general Fyodor Schubert (1789–1865) broke the silence and published a brief description of a Constantine ruble from his private collection. Schubert wrote that his coin was a test sample that was sent to Constantine's approval during the interregnum, and that press dies were destroyed upon accession of Nicholas I. Schubert's coin lacked edge lettering.In 1866 Bernhard Karl von Koehne published his account of the coin's history; according to Koene, the whole affair was Reichel's private venture. Reichel, wrote Koehne, sent three coins to Warsaw and all three disappeared when Constantine's palace was looted during the November Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
. Two samples left in Saint Petersburg were destroyed along with the presses.
In 1873 prince Trubetskoy (1813–1889) challenged Koene's story and published a different explanation of the events. According to Trubetskoy, all five test samples were sent to Warsaw and ended up in the hands of an anonymous Polish plunderer who later emigrated to France. After his death Trubetskoy became his widow's agent; two or three coins were allegedly sold to an American collector and perished in a shipwreck, two remained in Trubetskoy's possession. Russian collectors contested Trubetskoy's account and suspected that the so-called Trubetskoy rubles were fake. After World War II Valentin Yanin
Valentin Yanin
Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin is a leading Russian historian who has authored 700 books and articles. He has also edited a number of important journals and primary sources, including works on medieval Russian law, sphragistics and epigraphy, archaeology and history...
partially redeemed Trubetskoy: according to Yanin, the legendary shipment of samples to Warsaw was a coverup of Cancrin's invention, rather than Trubetskoy's own hoax.
In 1874 Afanasy Bychkov (1818–1899) reported a detailed description of two tin pressings of Constantine ruble from his collection. Bychkov's proofs, according to Valentin Yanin
Valentin Yanin
Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin is a leading Russian historian who has authored 700 books and articles. He has also edited a number of important journals and primary sources, including works on medieval Russian law, sphragistics and epigraphy, archaeology and history...
, were genuine work-in-progress samples retained by Cancrin. Their existence explains the difference between the number of tin proofs recorded in 1825 (nineteen) and in 1884 (seventeen). Yanin theorized that Bychkov could have inherited from Cancrin the hypothetical sixth Constantine ruble, and that it was resold in Europe in 1898.
A 1880 publication by former Ministry of Finance executive D. F. Kobeko confirmed suspicions against Trubetskoy. According to Kobeko, the Ministry still possessed five silver Constantine rubles, three sets of press dies and nineteen tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
samples. It appeared that Schubert's ruble, which lacked edge relief, was a genuine 1825 pressing, but the number of such incomplete pressings and their whereabouts remained unknown. The public also remained unaware that a few months earlier, in 1879, Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
removed five genuine Constantine rubles from the vault.
Their story was declassified in a 1886 publication by Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich, who owned one of genuine Constantine rubles. Alexander II retained one coin for himself (it is now in possession of the State Historical Museum
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...
), donated another to the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
and passed the other three to his relatives: Alexander of Hesse
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
Prince Alexander Ludwig Georg Friedrich Emil of Hesse, GCB was the third son and fourth child of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and Wilhelmina of Baden.-Questioned parentage:...
, Georgy Mikhailovich and Sergey Alexandrovich
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was a son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia...
. The three sets of presses and original artwork drawn by Reichel on parchment
Parchment
Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. Its most common use was as a material for writing on, for documents, notes, or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned; therefore, it is very...
were donated to the Hermitage Museum in October 1884 after the Hermitage director Vasilchikov pleaded the new emperor Alexander III
Alexander III of Russia
Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov , historically remembered as Alexander III or Alexander the Peacemaker reigned as Emperor of Russia from until his death on .-Disposition:...
.
Distribution and provenance
Another Constantine ruble without edge relief, the so-called Richter ruble, emerged during World War I. According to Chief numismatistNumismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...
of the Hermitage Ivan Spassky (1904–1990), who examined the Richter ruble in 1962, it is most likely genuine (Spassky wrote that he coin matched the original press dies). A third ruble of this type, the Garshin-Fuchs ruble, resurfaced in Germany in 1981 and is also considered genuine. This find brought the total number of existing Constantine rubles to eight.
Two coins with edge relief are still in Russia, at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the State Historical Museum in Moscow. All others, including the Schubert and Richter rubles, ended up overseas. The collection of Georgy Mikhailovich is now owned by the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, others are privately owned. Auction prices for genuine Constantine rubles rose from 41,000 USD in 1964 to 200,000 USD in 1974 but in 1981 plummeted to 51,000 USD. One of Schubert rubles was resold in 2004 for USD 525,000. The auction company claimed that it was then the highest price record for a non-US coin.
Ivan Spassky summarized his provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
studies, published posthumously in 1991, as:
| Type | Individual name (Spassky) | Weight (grams) | Circumstances of rediscovery | Last known owner (as of 1990) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proof coinage Proof coinage Proof coinage means special early samples of a coin issue, historically made for checking the dies and for archival purposes, but nowadays often struck in greater numbers specially for coin collectors . Many countries now issue them.... with edge lettering |
Hermitage ruble | 20.63 | Delivered from the Ministry of Finance to the Hermitage June 19, 1879. | Hermitage Museum Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,... |
| Alexander II ruble | 20.55 | Delivered from the Ministry of Finance to Alexander II June 15, 1879. Transferred to the Hermitage in 1926 and from there to State Historical Museum in 1930. | State Historical Museum State Historical Museum The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty... |
|
| Georgy Mikhailovich ruble | 18.52 | Presented to Grand Duke George Mikhailovich in 1879. Deposited in the Russian Museum Russian Museum The State Russian Museum is the largest depository of Russian fine art in St Petersburg.... in 1909. During the Russian Civil War Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a... the whole collection was moved out of the country and resurfaced in Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century.... . Repossessed by Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark, mother of Georgy, through court order. After her death one of her daughters moved the collection to the United States. Willis du Pont purchased the coin in 1959 and donated it to the Smithsonian Institution. |
Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines... |
|
| Sergei Alexandrovich ruble | Unknown | Presented to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was a son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia... in 1879 or 1880. Presumably the coin was auctioned at Hamburger's in 1898 and at Schulman's (New York) in 1965. |
Unknown | |
| Alexander von Hesse ruble | 20.61 | Presented to Prince Alexander of Hesse Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine Prince Alexander Ludwig Georg Friedrich Emil of Hesse, GCB was the third son and fourth child of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and Wilhelmina of Baden.-Questioned parentage:... in February 1880. Auctioned in Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... in January 1914 to the Brand family. Auctioned in 1964 to Sol Kaplan, lated sold to a Swiss collector. |
Unknown | |
| Schubert ruble without edge lettering |
Reichel-Schubert-Tolstoy ruble | 20.75 | The first Constantine ruble that became public through a 1857 publication by Schubert. In 1913 it was auctioned as part of count Tolstoy's estate. In 1961 it was owned, along with several fakes, by A. E. Kelpsh, a Russian emigree to the United States. Kelpsh estate sold their Constantine ruble to a private customer in 1974 for USD 200,000. | Unknown |
| Josef-Richter ruble | 20.57 | This, according to Spassky, could be the coin secretly retained by Cancrin. It resurfaced in Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea... during World War I and was owned by Soviet collector Richter. Ivan Spassky examined the coin in 1962 and found that it matches the Hermitage press dies. After Richter's death the coin emerged in Germany. The new owner, numismatist Willhelm Fuchs, failed to sell it through Sotheby's Sotheby's Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish... in 1981; by 1990 it was believed to be in a private collection in the United States. |
Unknown | |
| Garshin-Fuchs ruble | 20.89 | Owned by Soviet collector Garshin (1887—1956). Twenty years after his death resurfaced in Germany in possession of Willhelm Fuchs. In 1979 it was offered for sale in the United States for USD 114.000. | Unknown |
The Trubetskoy fakes have become rare collectibles in their own right; two of these are preserved at the Hermitage and the Smithsonian (the latter is part of Georgy Mikhailovich collection).
Numerous other fakes, some of very high quality, circulated in Europe and Russia. They were pressed either from real, mass-produced silver coins of the period, or from soft alloys. According to Ivan Spassky, all high-quality fakes of this kind were pressed on the same set of dies. According to Kalinin, the genuine press dies from the Hermitage are no longer good for minting. During World War II the Hermitage coin collection was evacuated from the city into deep rear. The dies were stored in inappropriately humid conditions that caused corrosion
Corrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...
of the polished surfaces. Speckles of rust on the Hermitage dies, according to Kalinin, forever rule out their use (or abuse) for cloning the Constantine ruble.
Sources
- Korf, M. A. (1857). The accession of Nicholas I. London: John Murray.
- Melnikova, A. S. et al. (1991, in Russian). Konstantinovsky rubl. Novye materialy i opisaniya (Константиновский рубль. Новые материалы и исследования). Moscow: Finansy i statistika. ISBN 5279004901. Includes:
- Melnikova, A. S. (1991, in Russian). Konstantinovsky rubl i istoriya ego izuchenia (Константиновский рубль и история его изучения).
- Bartoshevich, V. V. (1991, in Russian). Zametki o konstantinovskob ruble (Заметки о константиновском рубле).
- Kalinin, V. A. (1991, in Russian). Iz istorii sozdaniya shtempeley konstantinovskogo rublya (Из истории создания штемпелей константиновского рубля).
- Schukina, E. S. (1991, in Russian). K voprosu o sozdatelyah shtempeley konstantinovskogo rublya (К вопросу о создателях штемпелей константиновского рубля).
- Spassky, I. G. (1991, in Russian). Novoye o ruble Konstantina 1825 g. i ego poddelkah (Новое о рубле Константина 1825 г. и его подделках).
External links
- Dies of the Rouble of Constantine Pavlovich. Hermitage Museum.