Cn Mint. Mint. Signs and hallmarks of the mint

In the Russian Federation, there are two mints: Moscow and St. Petersburg. They are engaged not only in the production of coins, but also in the production of orders, medals. In total, there are several dozen mints in the world and each coin has an indication of which one it was made on. That's just on each coin the mint is defined differently.
Ask why it is generally required to determine the mint of a coin? This is one of the factors directly affecting the value of a coin in the numismatic market. Also, the price is affected by the year of manufacture, product material, edge, condition and some other things.
Why does the value of a coin depend on the mint? In many ways, this value is determined by the circulation of a coin published in a particular year at a particular mint. Relatively speaking, if in 2012 the Moscow Mint issued 4 million coins with a face value of 5 rubles, and St. Petersburg only 500 thousand, then the cost of the latter over time will be higher.

Mint mark on modern Russian coins

On modern Russian coins, the St. Petersburg Mint is denoted by the acronym SPMD on ruble coins and C-P on a penny. The Moscow Mint is indicated by the abbreviation MMD on ruble coins and M on a penny. It is curious that on the 1992 coins the coins of the St. Petersburg Mint were marked with the seal L. There are also known cases of marriage in which individual coins were issued without a mint designation. As a rule, such coins are 10 times more expensive than the face value.
Since the standard of production has long been established in mints, the place for indicating the mint is definitely definitely already made. On kopecks (coins with a face value of 1 kopeck, 5 kopecks, 10 kopecks, 50 kopecks), the mint mark is stamped on the obverse of the coin, under the horse's left hoof, as shown below.

For ruble coins (with a face value of 1 ruble, 2 rubles, 5 rubles, 10 rubles), the indication of the mint is knocked out under the left paw of the two-headed eagle in which the power is located. On commemorative coins, where there is no image of an eagle on the obverse, the mint stamp is on the side with the face value of the coin.
In order to detect the sign of the mint in most cases, it is enough to have sharp eyesight. However, if the badge was not found this way, do not rush to rejoice that the coin is rare. You should carefully examine the coin with a magnifier or microscope.

As for Soviet coins, the mint mark began to be applied to them only in 1975. The first Soviet coins on which the mint mark appeared were: 1 ruble, dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, and the chervonets of 1977. But on bargaining coins, the mint mark began to be indicated only in 1990.

Mintmark on coins of the Russian Empire

As for the older coins of the times of the Russian Empire, there were several dozen yards on which coins were printed. It is quite difficult to find the designations, since only on good quality coins did the mint mark survive quite clearly. Nevertheless, we will consider abbreviations designating these or those mints.
AM It is found on coins of 1789-1796. The so-called Anninsky coin was printed in s. Anninsky of the Perm province. Mostly these were coins in denominations of 2 and 5 kopecks made of copper.
BC. Red and Embankment mints of Moscow. Reduction in BC comes from the Big Treasury. It is found on coins of the period 1704-1718.
VM (also M.W. and W.M.). Abbreviation for Warsaw coin. It is found on coins of the period 1815-1915 (the period when the Polish kingdom entered the Russian Empire).
THEM. Abbreviation for Izhora coin. Coins were printed between 1810-1821, mainly in denominations of 1 and 2 kopecks. Printed in the village of Izhory near St. Petersburg.
KM. Abbreviation for Kolyvan coin. Coins were printed between 1767-1839. At first, only the so-called Siberian coin, then, since 1801, nationwide. The name comes from the Kolyvano-Voskresensk smelters of the Altai Territory, on which coins were issued.
MM Abbreviation for Moscow coin. Coins were printed between 1758-1795. It is found on coins in denominations of 1 and 2 kopeks.
CM. Abbreviation for Suzun coin. Coins were printed between 1831-1847 at the Nizhne-Suzunsky smelter (now located in the Novosibirsk region).
Also, the abbreviation SM was found on coins printed in Sestroretsk near St. Petersburg (1763-1767) and on St. Petersburg coins (St. Petersburg court in 1797-1799 and the Banking mint in 1799-1801).
TM Abbreviation for Tauride coin. Printed in the city of Feodosia in the period 1787-1788. This “mint” is notable for the different denomination of issued coins, which was not characteristic of other regional “mints”. So among copper coins were issued in denominations from half to 5 kopecks, and among silver from 2 to 20 kopecks.

Special mint designation represents a certain logo of the enterprise. In each country, it can be different; there are no uniform standards. As a rule, these are abbreviations of the name of the city where the mint is located. But it can also be various graphic elements that distinguish a city or country. A coin of one design can have different designations of mints, depending on the place of minting and the year of issue. Sometimes there are coins without a designation, but these are error coins, and it immediately becomes rarities.

The hallmark of the Russian Mint

FSUE Goznak is an enterprise entrusted with the research, development and production of state signs, mainly coins and banknotes. At the moment, Russian coins are minted in the Moscow and St. Petersburg mints.

How to determine the mint on Russian coins?

One of the first questions of a beginner numismatist. In fact, there is nothing complicated here. Mintmark can be in the form of individual letters or their combinations. They are usually very small, and magnifying devices may be needed. To make it easier to distinguish mint of Russia, I will tell you more about them.

If you look at the obverse of the coin in denominations of 10, 5, 2, and 1 ruble, then under the left paw of the eagle will be the sign SPMD or MMD.

If you look at the obverse of the coin in denominations of 50, 10, 5 and 1 kopeck, then under the front left hoof of the horse will be the letter M or C-P.

The coins of previous periods also had the designations L and M.

Mint mark on some coins of Russia

More information about the location and designation of the mint on coins:

The designation of the mint on domestic coins has a long history. In the Soviet period, it was practically not present on coin signs. But do not think that it was canceled by the Bolsheviks who came to power. In fact, the disappearance of the usual letters "St. Petersburg", separated by dots, was promoted by Emperor Nicholas II. Entering the military campaign of the First World War, the king launched the strongest anti-German sentiment in society. The surge of hatred for everything German was so powerful and fast that already in August St. Petersburg changed its name to Petrograd.

In this regard, the St. Petersburg Mint also becomes Petrograd, and the very same three letters "SPB" disappear from coins of penny denominations (the initials of Mintmeister Viktor Smirnov continue to be minted on silver). Thus began the release of "courtless" royal coins. However, the empire itself did not have to stay long on the political map of the world.

Logo LMD on the jubilee ruble

In the mass consciousness, the return of the mint designation took place in 1991, when the letters "L" or "M" appeared on the entire line of coins (depending on whether they were minted by the Leningrad or Moscow Mint). However, this is a misconception. For the first time, a trademark was minted on a jubilee ruble dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the Victory. Below and to the right of the pedestal, on which the sculpture of the Motherland stands proudly, we can find the logo of the Leningrad Mint. The reasons why it arose once and never appeared on the Soviet copper-nickel anniversary anymore are unknown. We can say that the phenomenon went almost unnoticed. Few people paid any attention to a small trademark, so this logo did not linger in the memory of the people.

Since 1977, the designation of the mint in the form of a three-letter abbreviation appears on gold pieces of gold, in large numbers minted before the Olympics. There were hopes that foreigners would buy up original coins en masse. In 1981, the Leningradsky Dvor sharply reduced the issue of gold coins; therefore, Chervonets, bearing the designation LMD on the edge, are a welcome find among collectors of domestic investment coins. However, for most Soviet citizens gold pieces remained the realities of some other parallel world, therefore, here the designation of the mint was familiar to the initiates rather than to the masses.

M and L on 1991 coins

But to say that the massive return of the trademark took place precisely in 1991 is not entirely correct. The letter "M" to the right of the coat of arms of the USSR is also present on 1990 coins (denominations of 5 and 10 kopecks). It’s clear that this is a mistake when the stamping pair was made up of an obverse intended for 1991 coins and a 1990 reverse, which somehow lingered in the technological chain. These coins are quite rare and have a high price among collectors.

All coins of the new line, unofficially called "Coins of the State Emergency Committee", are marked with a mint. If dimes and fifty dollars are indicated by letters ("M" for ten cents and "L" for fifty), then the ruble denominations are already decorated with the logo. On the ruble, we can only see the elongated logo of the LMD, but the five, in addition to the Leningrad one, may have a rounded Moscow monogram (MMD is valued slightly more expensive, but it is not a rare coin). However, the difference in logos is most strikingly manifested in the price of a bimetallic ten-ruble. A dozen LMDs have been issued in a huge print run and are still a coin that is bought by weight. But if under the designation of the face value a circle in which the curly letters MMD are guessed, then the price of such an instance is immediately carried away above the ten thousandth mark.

Three options for the little things of 1992

A very interesting situation has developed for the lowest ratings of 1992. Due to hyperinflation, pennies were washed out of circulation. Therefore, the letter designations switched to coins in denominations of one ruble and five rubles. But the Moscow yard managed to mint a certain part of the circulation not with the letter "M", but with the logo of "MMD". Let's look at fives with three kinds of designations. If the "letter" coins are ordinary and do not represent any interest, then fives with a logo you will not find so often, and they have collection value (you can check on the basis of the auction passes of our site).

Higher denominations of 10 and 20 rubles immediately had a mint designation in the form of a logo. However, both yards worked hard here, and pricing does not come from the designation of the yard, but from the presence of magnetic properties for 1992 and from their absence for 1993. The logo also adorns bimetal, where Moscow coins are more valued.

M and SP under the hoof of a horse

The designation of the yard remained on the coins and after the denomination. But Leningrad regained the historical name of St. Petersburg, and the abbreviation LMD was transformed into SPMD. However, for a small bargaining chip, they decided to leave only the designation of cities (without mentioning the mint). And on penny denominations of 1997 the letter "M" appeared again. Almost in the same place as on the 1991 kopecks. And the letter "L" was replaced by a two-letter design with the point "C-P". The obverse of penny denominations is decorated with the image of George the Victorious, striking the snake with a spear. Therefore, we always remember, seeing the phrase "Look for the designation of the mint under the hoof of a horse", that we are talking only about cheap denominations.

MMD and SPMD under the paw of an eagle

Ruble denominations have on the obverse an image of a double-headed eagle (an analogue of the emblem of the Bank of Russia - the emitter of money of the Russian Federation). Here the phrase "Looking for the designation of the mint under the paw of an eagle" is appropriate. It's not about letters anymore. Before us is the trademark of the mint in the form of the MMD or SPMD logo. A trademark, as it turned out, is not such a constant. If the ruble denominations adorn the MMD logo in the form of a huge circle, then over time it will become modest in size and noticeably flattened. But the SPMD logo is unchanged. It is worth noting that most varieties of modern weathering is exactly this or that arrangement of the mint's trademark relative to other elements of the picture on the coin field.

Lost Signs

They are unlikely to write an impressive novel such as "The Lost Symbol." But among collectors, coins without a yard designation are in steady demand. As in the union years, the Moscow Mint excelled here. For unknown reasons, he lost “M” on the part of the circulation of five kopecks in 2002 and 2003, as well as the MMD logo on the “Gagarinskaya” two-ruble in 2001. The price of such coins is thousands of times higher than their sisters of ordinary varieties. Therefore, fakes have become more frequent. Basically polish the logo on two rubles, and St. Petersburg coins often go into business. But the fakes of the pennies have already been identified, although it is technologically more difficult to cut off the sign from the clad coin imperceptibly. There are coins without designation of the yard and other years. But here it is important to remember that coins of recognized varieties are valued. If the drawing of the coin field in all details is indistinguishable from the familiar stamp where the courtyard is present, then this is just not minted. Of course, such coins are of interest, but the attention to them is much more modest than to the "legitimate" options without a logo or letter.

Moving the logo to the face value on the anniversary

On commemorative coins, the issuer and the trademark move to the side where the denomination is indicated, and it automatically becomes an obverse. The reason is clear - the other side is completely occupied with an image dedicated to an event, region or ancient city. On dozens of bimetallic logos are located at the bottom of the obverse. It is important not only in the collection plan (there are albums for the anniversary taking into account two-yard issues), but also in value. If you look at the price tag or the database of auction passes on our site, you will notice that the coins of one yard are somewhat more expensive than the exact same, but issued by another mint.

Since 2016, the eagle on the obverse of ruble denominations changes its appearance, returning to the classic imperial look. So we already saw him on coins in denominations of twenty-five rubles, dedicated to the Sochi Olympics. We are looking for the trademark of the mint on the banknotes of a new type in the usual place - under the paw of an eagle, although now it is turned up and occupied by the state. So far, only the Moscow Mint has been presented. But nothing prevents the St. Petersburg Mint from returning to minting the walker, and then once again we will see the SPMD logo under the eagle's paw.

Recent auctions prices for coins in Russian rubles

Coin description	G	Vg	F	Vf	Xf	Au	UNC	Proof
5 kopecks 2002 M from 2 to 15 rubles.	-	-	-	15	-	2	10	-
1 ruble 1991 LMD GKChP GKChP from 7 to 106 rubles.	-	-	-	-	7	8	106	-
1 ruble 1992 MMD from 21 to 110 rubles.	-	-	-	-	21	-	110	-
1 ruble 1992 M from 1 to 199 rub.	-	-	-	-	-	1	199	-
5 rubles 1992 MMD from 66 to 284 rub.	-	-	-	-	66	284	268	-
5 rubles 1992 M from 45 to 162 rubles.	-	-	-	-	-	45	162	-
1 ruble 1992 L from 1 to 110 rubles.	-	-	-	-	18	1	110	-
5 rubles 1992 L from 1 to 100 rubles.	-	-	-	1	6	8	100	-
10 rubles 2008 MMD Vladimir Vladimir (XII century.) from 120 to 278 rubles.	-	-	120	193	233	240	278	-

If you decide to get carried away with numismatics, you should carefully approach the selection of copies for your collection. To quickly and correctly determine the market value of a banknote, you will need knowledge of mints. The fact is that the same banknote issued by different yards may differ in price several times.

Before proceeding with the search for the logo, you should determine the year of issue. If the date could not be found, most likely, this coin was issued back in the time of Tsarist Russia, and only an experienced collector can determine the ownership of the mint. The fact is that previously in the country there were about thirty mints.

Today the question is relevant: how to determine the mint on a coin? However, in modern Russia, unlike the times of Tsarist Russia, there are only two mints - Moscow and St. Petersburg, whose emblems are displayed on the surface of the coins.

How to find out which mint issued a coin? On products, their names are minted in the form of monograms MMD and SPMD. On penny coins, the letters M and C-P are displayed.

If there are no mint emblems on the coins, they represent a real find for collectors, and the cost of such defective products will increase significantly. No matter how surprising it may sound, defective products are actually much higher in value because of their rarity.

Not every aspiring collector knows where the mint is located. This is actually not such a complicated procedure. To understand which courtyard a coin belongs to, it is enough to take a magnifying glass and carefully examine its surface. Also, some collectors use a scanner or camera.

Sometimes it’s hard for beginners to figure out how to distinguish mints. On the coins that were issued by the Moscow Mint, the inscriptions are more rounded. This is one of the main differences.

On 10-ruble coins, the mint mark is located on the obverse, immediately below the face value. If the banknote was issued in the early 90s, then the emblem should be sought on the front side. But on penny coins the sign of belonging to the mint will be depicted under the front hooves of the horse on which the rider sits. For modern coins, the emblem is located on the reverse on the right side under the eagle's paw.

For those who do not know how to distinguish a mint, these features will be enough to independently determine the ownership of banknotes.

Hello dear readers. In this article, we will talk about how to distinguish mints by their designations on coins. An already beginning collector, looking at catalogs, sees that coins of certain years are distributed among the MMD and SPMD groups. Most of them confine themselves to looking at price tags, noting that coins, where under the hoof of a horse appear “S-P”, and under the paw of an eagle say “”, are sometimes more expensive than their Moscow sisters. However, those who intend to study the issue more deeply should understand that most varieties of the catalog are based on how exactly the initials of the mints of Russia are located on the coin field relative to other elements of the picture.

The designation of mints on the coins of modern Russia

After the monetary reform of 1997, the minting of metal settlement marks for cash payments in full took up both mints. For the mark of penny denominations decided to use mint initials - the letters "M" and "S-P". They decided to leave the location traditional: on the right side of the lower half of the coin field. Since George the Victorious, smashing a snake, occupies the kopecks with the date "1997" and later, it turned out that the letters found themselves under the reared hoof of the hero’s four-legged companion. They look there quite harmoniously. Ruble denominations adorn no longer letters, but logos mints.

The elongated logo of the mint of St. Petersburg almost imperceptibly survived the transformation from LMD to SPMD. But the emblem of the Moscow court has evolved somewhat. In 1997, the monogram, including the three letters "", was inscribed in an almost even circle. The emblem looked large and took up a lot of space on the coin field. Apparently for unification since 1998, the Moscow emblem appears in a flattened version and more modest sizes. However, it still looks more rounded than the SPMD logo.

For anniversary coins, one of the sides is completely given to the drawing, therefore issuer's designation "Bank of Russia" moves to the side where the denomination is located. The mint logo also goes there. For bimetallic coins of ten-ruble denomination, it is located in the center of the lower half of the coin field under the inscription "RUBLES". This is important to know, because coins with the same pattern may have different prices depending on which mint has issued one or another instance.

A case in point is when the mint designation is missing. It should be distinguished when it is a recognized variety (5 kopeks of 2002 or 2003 or a jubilee kopeck piece with Gagarin), and when the letter or logo is missing as a result of a banal non-piercing (50 kopeks of 2007 or dozens of bimetal). In the first case, you have enough valuable coin. The second case is a frequent coin defect and not a lot of money).

Scroll the pages of history back. In Soviet times, most of the coins were minted at the Leningrad Mint, therefore, the issue of designating the place of minting was updated only with the connection of the Moscow yard to mass issues of the circulation vodogovka. The exception is anniversary ruble “30 years of Victory”, where a careful look can reveal the elongated LMD logo to the right of the pedestal on which the grandiose monument “Motherland” is installed.

"MMD" and "LMD" on gold coins of the USSR

Mint abbreviations are also present on gold pieces, which from the mid-seventies he was ready to mint in the calculation of their purchase by wealthy Western tourists who had gathered at the Moscow Olympics. Here, one should turn to the 1981 Leningrad chervonets, which is a recognized rarity, while the Moscow coin with the same date does not stand out from the rest.

In the late eighties, experienced numismatists easily distinguished yards by date digits. But 1991 showed the letter "L" or "M" to the right of the coat of arms of the USSR (depending on whether they minted them at the Leningrad or Moscow Mint). We will see the same letters on coins of 10 and 50 kopecks new coinnicknamed collectors "GKChP". Ruble denominations have already acquired the brand names of the yards. Fives of 1991 have to put in albums in two versions. But more interesting is the situation with dozens of bimetallic ones. An elongated LMD logo separates ordinary coins from very rare specimens, where we will see a rounded MMD emblem.

And for fives and rubles with the date "1992" in the albums prepared as many as three nests. The Moscow Mint first minted coins with the logo, but after that the letter "M" appeared instead. In Leningrad, initially they began to mint these denominations exclusively with the letter "L". Of the trinity of fives of the year, coins with an emblem are found less frequently, although even they are not so difficult to find when systematically viewing heaps in those regions served by the Moscow Mint.

The designation of mints on the coins of tsarist Russia

Let's look into the history even deeper. If we take the fourteenth century, then the presence of a mint could boast of such cities as Ryazan, Novgorod, Pskov and Tver. True, rough blacksmithing technologies were mainly used here. Leadership gradually passed to the breech mint, created in 1534 in Moscow. And under Alexei Mikhailovich, the activities of nonresident mints were temporarily suspended, and the monetary business was concentrated in Moscow. In 1697, the Red Court opens, also referred to as Chinese because of its location near Kitai Gorod. He was measured the age of life, and during this period the coins issued at his facilities received the designation "KD", "MD" and "MM". Among Moscow yards, we also note Kadashevsky, who also had the designation "MD", but besides this also "MDZ", "DMD", "M" and "MOSCOW". For minting kopecks of silver and copper coins on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the Naberezhny Mint, designated as “ND” and “NDZ”, operated.

But here rebuilt St. Petersburg, which received metropolitan status, where the Petersburg Mint opens in 1721. Starting from 1724, it was he who was given the right to mint silver coins. Initially, it was located right in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but by the nineteenth century it was being moved to Sadovaya Street, giving it the area of \u200b\u200bthe Assignation Bank, and then to a special building in Petropavlovsk. Over the years of its existence, he received the following designations: "BM", "SM", "SP", "SPM" and "SPB".

The vast expanses of Russia did not allow the transport of a sufficient number of coins, while the need for them only increased in connection with the successful expansion to the east. It was necessary to establish the minting of money in the newfound territories. So appear mints in Yekaterinburg ("EM"), the village of Anninsky of the Perm province ("AM"), Sestroretsk ("SM"). The Suzunsky Mint (“KM” and “SM”) also worked successfully. The Kolpinsky Yard provided money to Siberian lands (in different years - “IM”, “KM” and “SPM”). Coins of Tiflis were minted on the southern borders and Theodosius was extremely short-lived (“ТМ” - “Tauride coin”). Poland as a part of Russia had a rather large degree of independence, including its own mint in Warsaw. The coins minted there have the designations "MW", "WM" (Warszawska mennica) and "VM" (Warsaw coin).

Just do not confuse the designation of the mint with the initials of the mitzmeister. Traditionally, on small and medium denominations, letters signifying the name and surname of the Mintmeister were placed on the obverse under the eagle, and we will see belonging to the mint on the reverse under the denomination designation. In determining the value of a coin in imperial Russia, the initials of mints are important. A coin of the same denomination with the same date could be minted in bulk by one mint, and the other issued it in an extremely limited edition. For example, 42,450,000 copies of two kopecks were minted with the date "1812" and the letters "IM", in Yekaterinburg (designation "EM") they made as many as 132,085,700 coins, while the letters "KM" received only 250 thousand coins.

Graphic and lettering on foreign coins

In conclusion, a few words about foreign coins. For the European year, sometimes the mint is also crucial. So complete collection of euro-couples should include five copies of the same German coin, distinguished by only one letter: A (Berlin), D (Munich), F (Stuttgart), G (Karlsruhe) or J (Hamburg). In the USA, at modern cents and dollars, mints are also distinguished by single-letter letters: D (Denver), O (New Orleans), P (Philadelphia), S (San Francisco) and W (West Point - only precious metals).

However, not all countries use lettering. So Paris Mint France uses the cornucopia as a symbol, and we will see caduceus on coins Royal Mint The Netherlands. However, here one should not confuse the logo of the mint with a graphic designation of its director, which may periodically change when the position changes hands.