RUSSIAN COINS 1699-1917. Yusupov, B.S. Askold Publishers, Kazan, 1995. 278pp, numerous plates. 18x25 cm, hardbound. Print run: 10,000. (In Russian)
This is an odd, but valuable, book in many ways. The first curiosity to strike the reader is the name of the publishing company: 'Askold.' Askold and Dir were the two Vikings who seized Kiev from the local rulers in the 9th century, only to be themselves captured by the main Viking force under the heirs of Rurik. One wonders if there is any hidden significance to this name.
Yusupov does not break any new ground in his book, which covers the machine-struck coinage of Imperial Russia, but rather presents, for the first time since 1917 in a Russian-language publication, the main varieties as shown in the well-known works by Giel, Ilyin, Tolstoy, and Garshine covering 1699 through 1915. He also integrates into the text the work by E.G. Poliuko, covering the rubles of Anna Ivanovna (1730-1740) in detail. Perhaps the most valuable part of the book is that Yusupov reproduces the actual values for coins, as shown in the major pre-revolutionary references. This enables both the beginning and advanced collector to determine relative rarity for most, but not all, series of coins. The strength of this book is that it allows contemporary Russian numismatists to collect imperial coins by major or minor die varieties as they so choose. That this book could be published shows that the Russian numismatic world is becoming more sophisticated. No longer are most collectors searching merely for dates of a given denomination, but an increasing number now look for interesting varieties. There are also drawbacks. Yusupov does not have a good grasp of rarities after about 1902; in fact, one should simply ignore his rarities for coins of this period. In addition his descriptions and listings of the 1860 silver are seriously flawed.
The proofreading of the text leaves something to be desired. One finds occasional lapses such as the 1809 "BM" copper five kopecks when in fact it should read 1809 KM.
A third drawback is that the author does not discriminate the varieties between the real and the meaningless. It is highly doubtful, for example, that more than a handful of collectors will ever have the money or patience to search for the minute varieties of silver coins of the 1830s differing only in the berry count on the reverse wreath.
Despite the flaws (which sound worse than they really are), the Yusupov book is well worth acquiring by the Western collector, even those who do not read Russian at all. Most of the varieties can be figured out with a good Russian-English dictionary and the illustrations.