Russia, 1 Rouble 1970 Lenin. Very Fine

This small bronze coin was the smallest coin in Jewish currency, issued ca 103-76BC. It is best known because of what Jesus Christ said about it. When a widow gave one as a gift for charity, a merchant made fun of her. Jesus said (Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1), ‘This poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast in the treasury’. In other words, the Mite or Prutah meant more to that woman than the gold given by the rich man. We have a nice selection of these small, well circulated, and important bronze coins. Great as a gift as most people have heard of the fabled Widow’s Mite. Don’t expect them to be anything but a small crudely struck bronze coin, but do expect to have something that is rather important in history as well as in life.

Although Yugoslavia was created in the aftermath of World War 1, it did not become the country’s official name until 1929 when King Alexander I installed a personal dictatorship to promote a more centralised state. Until then it was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the old Serbian dinar was introduced to all the regions gained from the Austrian Empire in 1920. These 1 and 2 dinar coins we are now offering, minted in 1925, bear the portrait of the king on the obverse side with his then official title of King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

This coin was issued under the USSR, it is the largest denomination that was actually used every day as money. It is dated 1989 and it is dated both on the reverse and on the edge of the coin. You have the hammer and sickle on one side and the denomination on the other side. The current catalogue price is $30.00 in mint state 60 and there is no price for this coin in mint state 63, which they are. It is a scarce coin, in much better condition than they usually come. We bought them right, so we are going to sell them right. Uncirculated it catalogues at £22.70. A tough coin to get, especially so choice.