Mistery Coin, help needed

As far as I remember, these coins were minted by the Russians at Sadagura, near Cernăuţi, at a time when they began a war against the Porte and they intended to make them the official coin in their future territories. What is interesting is that they treated the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Walachia as a single entity even before they begun the campaign. I have even read a theory that Catherine the Great intended to unite the two principalities into a "Kingdom of Dacia" ruled by one of her sons (interesting hypothesis, but unfortunately unconfirmed).

Returning to the coins, there were some problems with these coins even from the very beginning. Lack of precious metals (maybe the Russians hoped that their conquests would bring them) led to the coins being struck using cheap materials and hence their stated value was not covered by the metal content as was the custom of the time. An interesting thing however is that the coins provided an exchange rate between the currency used in the Romanian principalities at the time (the Paras) and the Russian equivalent (the Dengi). I do not remember however whether the stated exchange rate was real or was favouring the Russians (as they did only 100 years later with the occasion of the 1877-1878 war against the Porte).

Many infos about Sadagura coinage (both in romanian and english language) you can find into my site www.banivechi.home.ro (or www.banivechi.com) clicking on "Sadagura" link into main page. Down under the pictures of my coins you will find the short history of these coins. For the next "Colectionarul Roman" - the online numismatic magazine from www.transylvanian-numismatics.com I prepared a 5 pages article about Sadagura coinage. As a interesting detail, these coins were made from the bronze of approx 1000 turkish canons and mortars captured by Rumyantsov's army at Akkerman, Benderi, Danube forts,Brasov, Izmail!

This post has been edited by Aldor on October 24, 2006 11:48 am

I still think it is only a coincidence as neither the girl nor the "TASSET" inscription is centred on the coin fragment. Both the girl and the inscription are on the same axis and therefore centring one would have meant centring the other as well. You may carry on looking, but do not have high hopes.

In the days of the Communist regime, it was common practice to cut from silver or gold coins as much the jewelry artist asked for whatever you needed: ear rings, wedding ring etc. You could not buy gold or silver before 1989, so you had to rely on this kind of belongings. It was possible in the 1960's to buy gold wedding rings from the State (i.e. government controlled business), but that was over by the 1970's.
Maybe that fragment got buried before the Communist days, but I guess the practice I described was also in use in the old times.

If anybody is interested in the story of the Sadagura coins, you can read BG7M's excellent article in Colectionarul Roman:
http://www.worldwar2.ro/colectionarul/Cole...rul_Roman_7.pdf

Hi Denes i have the same coin in my colection.It was a mystery coin for me until i see her at Minastirea Bistrita Museum.It is made from the bronze of the turkish canon and it is made after the ruso-turc war which is ended whith the peace at Kuciuk Kainargi.Romantic isnt'it?

Any ideea about the coin on the right?

The other side (of the coin)....

Hello ,thanks for all the great information you have shared!


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