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Category Archive: Money

Hallmarking silver in the USSR how to read the signs on the marking

Assay Office building in Moscow. Hallmarking silver in the USSR

Assay Office building in Moscow. Hallmarking silver in the USSR. 

Hallmarking of silver in the USSR has changed more than once in its history. Immediately after the revolution of 1917, most of the jewelry factories and workshops were closed in Russia. Fearing robberies, the owners of large and small enterprises fled abroad. Assay offices, which were previously engaged in hallmarking silver, ceased their work with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks.

Hallmarking of silver at the dawn of the USSR was of little concern to the Soviet government. The main goal of the authorities was the requisition of jewelry and their further sale abroad, since the state needed funds to finance the world revolution. The first steps to put things in order in the jewelry business were made in 1918, when a commission formed under the Council of People’s Commissars assumed control functions.

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Great October Revolution Coins

Great October Revolution Coins. jubilee coin 1917-1977

Great October Revolution Coins. jubilee coin 1917-1977

For more than two centuries of history of the Russian monetary system did not exist or wasn’t custom to mint commemorative coins. The few editions dedicated to some historical events, such as memorial rubles in memory of the 100th anniversary of the War of 1812, or the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, or 200th anniversary of Gangut victory are very rare. Banknotes and coinage of the Soviet state didn’t mint commemorative coins either. The tradition of minting commemorative and jubilee coins began only in 1965, when was commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany – metal rubles with the image of the monument in Berlin’s Treptow Park, created by Vuchetich. Since then appeared the whole series on a particular theme, such as “Monuments of the Motherland”, or The Great October Revolution Coins. This series began, perhaps, in 1924: then went into circulation silver ruble and fifty kopeks, the symbolism of which fits into the theme of the October, and reflects the ideas proclaimed by the revolution.
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