(in original box + certificate)
This page will cover all of the Soviet silver commemorative coins released except the Moscow Olympic coins released back in 1977-1980 which will be covered in another page.
Soviet commemorative coins were first released back in 1965 and these were minted in terms of millions. Commemorative ruble coins were minted at irregular years but it was only in 1975 and later that the Leningrad Mint used this occasion to strike a various amount of coins. When it was known that the Soviet Union would host the 22nd Olympiad in Moscow, both the Leningrad and Moscow Mint ramped up their production levels to strike around 50 million coins within 4 years, which ranges from the common Ni-cupro to platinum coinages. Unfortunately, international politics played a role when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The United States of America urged the rest of the world to boycott any Soviet products. Furthermore, the price of silver at one time in 1980 spiked up to 50USD, which overall killed the coin marketing.
At that time, the average coinage strike for the following metals are about: (This does not include the possible combination of UNC, proof and the mint mark varieties)
| Metal | Design varieties | Mintage (average for each coin) |
| Ni-cupro | 6 | 5,500,000 |
| Silver | 28 | 300,000 |
| Gold | 6 | 90,000 |
| Platinum | 5 | 30,000 |
(Figures are roughly estimated)
It would take another 8 years for the mints to strike commemorative coins for special occasions. For a very short period of time while the fall of the Soviet Union lasted till 1991, a total of 12 different coins were struck at both Leningrad mint and Moscow mint for a short 4 years. All coins are struck in proof quality with 900 fineness with an ounce of silver in them, making the total weight of a coin 34.56grams. Mintage range from 20,000 to 40,000. While most coins are available in reasonable price, coins with original certificates and possible original boxes make the final pricing a lot more expensive and there is a substantial premium to it. By how much - I am not too sure either but there is a difference in the pricing.
From the Russian friends that I have been talking to, it
seems that such silver coins were rarely offered to the public, mainly because
of the price but chances are, quite a fair amount of them were marketed
overseas. There seems to be
two 'official' packaging, one of them marketed for North America and the other
is Europe and the rest of the world. Most of the packaging I have seen and own
are in velvet boxes but there are some do come in hard, dark red coloured
plastic cases which are only seen from sellers in Europe like this:
Boxed case that are only coming from sellers in Europe.
Generic certificates like this are issued for all sets although there are a few that come in a totally different set of certificates. One of the examples that I have is the 1990 World Children Summit in New York which is illustrated later. Certificates are printed in both Russian and English. Serial number is printed in red on the Russian side. Interestingly these certificates don't have a date of issue on them so it can be possible that some dealers may have mixed the certificates up. (p.s. If you do have the 1980 Olympics coin set, check for the security used for the certificate - they do have watermark as well as UV feature. Unfortunately on these certificates, they don't have such security - maybe it was just not worth it.)
Technical information for silver coins are as listed - all coins are struck with this planchet. Mintage and mints will be elaborate later in each individual section.
| Metal | silver |
| Denomination | 3 rubles |
| Quality | Proof |
| Diameter (mm) | 39.0 |
| Thickness (mm) | 3.3 |
| Fineness | 0.900 |
| Mass of precious metal (g) | 31.1 |
| Total weight (g) | 34.56 |
It is interesting to note that such sets don't seem to appear very often and they can be quite scarce. Most of the silver coins are included in part of the bigger "white metal" coin set, i.e. silver, palladium and platinum or the rarest set out of all is the 6 coin set with gold coins under the theme listed below in italics. I hope that this will give a better clue in what these sets are like and also, please kindly pardon my terrible photography as these were done years ago and they are locked away in a far place. I am still missing a few sets but hopefully when I obtain them, I will illustrate them here. As far as I am aware, I have seen all of the coins except for the Fort Ross coin in boxes and certificates. That said, all boxes come in different packaging which is a bit unusual but you know, it's Russia - what do you expect?
Note - there is an uprise of these counterfeit silver coins since early 2014. These are silver plated zinc coins. These are VERY dangerous counterfeit as they look essentially similar to a genuine coin. Make sure you know what you are getting!!!
Any extra information will be highly appreciated to understand how these were marketed overseas. Please kindly drop a mail if you have more information or enquires and such
Note: you can click on the images for a slightly bigger resolution.
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Released on 13th of September 1988.
Mintset is in velvet coloured box as shown - 2 coins in one set. |
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Released on 31st of August 1989.
Oddly enough, you would think these coins would come in a similar set like in the earlier years where it would be in two-in-one set but surprisingly they don't. |
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Released on 23th of April 1990.
Mintset is black in color. Relatively scarce in this packaging. |
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Released on 13th of August 1990.
Mintset in velvet. Certificate is unique as it explains why this coin was commemorated. From the seller that I bought from, he said that this was sold through the UN headquarters in New York. Maybe this is the reason why there is a special certificate for this. Lowest mintage for the entire 3 ruble silver coinage. |
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Released on 5th of September 1990.
Mintset is black in color. Two coins in one set. |
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Released on 9th April 1991.
Mintset in velvet. This mintset is unusual as it also includes a metal that is supposedly made from spacecraft metal. Also, as you can see of the inner lining of the case, it does say "First Man in Space 30th Anniversary, Silver Proof Coin and Metal Set". Chances are this is very likely marketed in the US and Europe and never in the Soviet Union. Why would you market such sets in Russia where most people were forbidden to read English? |
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Released on 22nd April 1991. Released in black box. |
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Released on 3rd September 1991. Released in individual black boxes. Note that I have one in blue box - maybe this is non standard? |
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Reference:
Yurov, A.V, "proshloe v monetax, pyamyatnvie moneti 1832-1991g" (Gone with the money, Commemorative coins 1832-1991), Finance and Statistics, Moscow 1994.
11/09/2014