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The Constantine ruble is a rare silver coin of the Russian Empire bearing the profile of Constantine, the brother of emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. It was prepared to be manufactured at the Saint Petersburg Mint during the brief Interregnum of 1825 but has never been minted in numbers and never circulated in public. The fact of its existence, classified in Russia until 1886,〔By 1880 Russian numismatists were well aware of the existence of Constantine rubles, but their first printed description was published only in 1886 - Kalinin, (p.1 ).〕 leaked into European press in 1857. According to Ivan Spassky, there are eight genuine Constantine rubles of two different types. Five are proof coins complete with edge lettering. A hypothetical sixth coin of this type was probably minted in December 1825 and disappeared without trace. Three coins of the so-called ''Schubert ruble'' type have no edge lettering. They are, most likely, intermediate work-in-progress proofs illegally removed from the Mint. Three Constantine rubles are currently preserved at the Hermitage Museum and the State Historical Museum in Russia and the Smithsonian Institution in the United States.〔Jonathan Schaffer (2009, November 29). ''(Smithsonian Rare Russian Coin Collection Seeks Exhibition Sponsor )''. america.gov. Retrieved 02-03-2010.〕 The Hermitage also possesses the three genuine sets of press dies, in different stages of completion, seventeen tin work-in-progress samples and Jacob Reichel's original design on parchment.〔Kalinin, (p. 1 ).〕 All other genuine Constantine rubles are in private collections outside of Russia. The so-called ''Trubetskoy ruble'' is a fake Constantine ruble manufactured in the 1860s in Paris, a rare collectible in its own right. Two original Trubetskoy rubles are preserved at the Hermitage Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, the third is privately owned. ==Description== Genuine Constantine rubles conform to the standard of silver ruble established in 1810: .833 millesimal fineness silver alloy, 35 mm diameter, 20.73 grams gross weight.〔Melnikova, (p. 1 ).〕 Pure silver content of the coin is prominently written on the reverse as 4 and 21/96 zolotniks; hallmark is pressed on the edge, in Cyrillic. The actually weighs 20.63 grams, the Historical Museum coin weighs 20.55 grams, but the Smithsonian coin weighs only 18.52 grams.〔Spassky, (p. 4 ).〕 The ''Schubert rubles'' without edge lettering weigh 20.75 grams (''Schubert ruble''), 20.57 grams (''Richter ruble'') and 20.89 grams (''Garschin-Fuchs ruble'').〔Spassky, (pp. 5-6 ).〕 The fake ''Trubetskoy ruble'' in the Hermitage collection is the heaviest at 21.48 grams.〔 Obverse and reverse patterns are aligned at 180 degrees (top of obverse matches bottom of reverse). Mass-produced rubles of the period usually had their obverse, reverse and edge lettering pressed in a single operation. The automated presses produced nearly perfect alignment of edge lettering relative to obverse and reverse surfaces. Constantine rubles, on the contrary, were literally hand made on simple manually operated presses from blanks with pre-pressed edge lettering. They all display varying degrees of alignment errors. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Constantine ruble」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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