How to identify the year on old Russian coins! (Photos +)
When i once found a coin from time of Emperor Peter I, I was a bit puzzled. I was unable to find even a year on the coin after I washed it thoroughly. I could not spot any familiar markings that indicated the year.
The fact is that Russian coins up to 1722 had the year written in the old Cyrillic alphabet. Moreover, it was a matter of course for other languages as well.
To distinguish letters from numbers, there was a special character over the letters that indicated numbers- a wavy line or a “tilde” (~). If we look at the table below, it is easy to note that not all letters of the alphabet are used to denote numbers. This is due to the Greek origin of this system – the letters missing in the Greek alphabet, are not used.
Now take a look at your coins. You will certainly notice a diagonal stick, crossed out in two places. This symbol increases the value of the coming numbers a thousand times. Here’s how it looks on the coins.
More useful tips you will find here…
