N e w s

Department of Foreign and Domestic Affairs of the Bank of Russia reports that minting programs of the Bank include issuing of memorable precious metal coins which are circulated at domestic and international numismatic markets. Just in the period of 1977 to 1996 issued were over 30 series of memorable coins made of gold, silver, platinum and palladium alloys of total 13.5 million pieces. The central place in the programs belongs to such long-term series as "1000th anniversary of Russia", "Russian Ballet", "The Red Book of Russia", "Russian Memorials", "Famous People of Russia", "Let's Save Our World" and series dedicated to major geographic discoveries. In 1996 Russian citizens were first offered coins of investment value, newcomers for the domestic market. Such was the issued in 1995 three-ruble silver coin "Sobol" (sable) with 31.1 g of pure silver and a gold ten-ruble coin with 7.74 g of pure gold minted in the period 1975-82. Memorable and investment coins of the Bank of Russia are distributed by credit organizations of Russian Federation. Most of memorable coins are released into circulation by the Sberbank of Russia, Novaya Moskva Bank and others.

Source: Finmarket