Theft Of Russian Roubles In London

[Chris Perkins]

Posting this here to raise awareness. It seems a lot, so I wonder if a lot of the 10,000 face value are banknotes:

Good Evening Sir

I am DC within the CID at Hammersmith & Fulham and I am investigating the theft of around 10,000 Russian Roubles from around the time of the First World War. As I know very little about this area I am hoping to use your expertise to assist my investigation. I have come across your website through Google and I am hoping any suspects may have done the same? Could you please help me with the following:

1) Have you heard of anyone trying to sell any Russian Roubles to this approximate value in the past few months?

2) How easy is it to sell the coins, would you need some ID etc?

3) Are there any specialist dealers in the local area or could these coins have been stolen to order by a collector?

4) Any other information you can think of that would help me?

I apologise I can tell you no more about the coins, as the victim had no photographs or serial numbers of the coins to pass onto me. You can reach me by replying to this email or on 0208 246 2655.

Kind Regards

DC *Name removed, just in case they don't want it broadcast here*

Priority Crime Unit

Avenue House, Hammersmith Police Station

[Chris Perkins]

And my reply to DC ****:

Dear DC *****,

10,000 Roubles as in 10,000 One Rouble coins, or 10,000 Roubles in total face value made up of a mixture of Russian coins? The 5, 10 and 25 Rouble coins were gold. The 1 Rouble down to its 10th part were silver and the very small denominations were copper. Or, were there banknotes among them?

In normal used condition the vast majority of the silver and gold coins are just dealt with for the value of the metal they contain. The large quantity to me, indicates that the coins were probably in normal used condition because collectors tend to have far fewer examples (e.g. one of each year) in the best possible condition and would have no use for such a large amount. So it would be very likely that whoever stole them did so for the silver/gold value rather than any (if any) collectable value. Whether gold or silver, it's a huge amount of coins to have in the first place! I would be a little bit suspicious about the victim perhaps confusing the face value of the number of items etc, as anyone that has 10,000 or anything would surely have some kind of rough idea about what they looked like. If they are mainly banknotes, then banknotes, even 100 years old, tend to very rarely be worth much at all (despite many owners believing them to be valuable)!

If they are coins, then I would imagine the thieves would try to sell them for the metal content. A huge amount of Russian coins offered as collectable coins would cause any dealer to be very suspicious.

To address your questions:

1) No. Not heard of any huge quantities of Russian coins recently.
2) Probably not, especially if they were sold as gold/silver. Although the quantity would also make most reputable metal dealers very suspicious too.
3) As mentioned above. I would think this unlikely as even the most prolific collector wouldn't have 10,000 face value of anything because that would involve duplication! I can't however rule out that they could have been stolen to order by someone who wanted the metal.
4) Yes. If you provide more details of how many actual coins it was and if many/any were gold and silver then I can pass the text and your contact details to the British Numismatic Trade Association who represent the 80 or so leading UK coin dealers. The BNTA will send a message to all the members and will also post details on their website to get the message out. That might help.

If the crime happened months ago then I would think any recovery chances would be slim.

Mr C H Perkinswww.predecimal.comwww.rotographic.com

[Rob]

Ask Putin probably if you want a definitive answer as to their whereabouts.

[declanwmagee]

Putin called. He wants to lease some space in my garage. What's the worst that can happen?

[rpeddie]

depends what language your garage speaks

[Bronze & Copper Collector]

LOL !!!!!

I TOTALLY misread it....

I thought they were investigating a theft that took place at the time of the first World War....

I thought this was some sort of scam at first...

LMAO!!!!

Edited March 20, 2014 by Bronze & Copper Collector

[Chris Perkins]

That had occurred to me too initially, but the proper Metropolitan Police email address re-assured me!

[Gary]

LOL !!!!!

I TOTALLY misread it....

I thought they were investigating a theft that took place at the time of the first World War....

I thought this was some sort of scam at first...

LMAO!!!!

you were not the only one

[scott]

Russian coinage is a strong market and has been for years, 50 kopecks and the roubles are the key ones rest is barely worth anything.

[Peckris]

It was probably Putin, knowing economic sanctions are on the way...

[scottishmoney]

It wasn't a theft, rather it was a "repatriation" of state property of the USSR.

[Peckris]

It wasn't a theft, rather it was a "repatriation" of state property of the USSR.

Oh of course - those roubles "could have got hurt" if they'd been left in peace.

You're in the Ukraine aren't you, SM? Or were. If not any longer, then I'd say you got out in time.

[Chris Perkins]

More info today: It was a mixture of coins and no banknotes. The victim estimated the value as £7000.

So they couldn't have been from the WWI era (silver and gold), unless they were all copper denominations, which is also unlikely because 10,000 Roubles in copper you'd probably need a crane and HGV to steal.

Something doesn't really add up. Either the victim had absolutely no idea what was stolen, or he's being dishonest about what actually was stolen.