I remember myself in the first months of my passion for instrument search. Such excitement, such drive from every coin or incomprehensible piece of colored iron. What if it’s something very rare, which means it might cost money, but as soon as I sell it, I’ll buy winter tires. Over time, this naive stupidity passes because, from experience, you begin to understand what can cost money and what is an absolute shmurdyak, or souvenirs for friends and family.
And yet, there is a very pressing question: where and how can one get competent advice on the attribution and possible valuation of an item that, with a high degree of probability, may turn out to be rare, so someone really needs it to replenish the collection??? Let's talk about it.
It should be noted right away that this article will talk about things that do not fall under the definition of an archaeological object.
Article 7.15.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation – Illegal trafficking in archaeological objects. Conducting transactions with archaeological objects in violation of the requirements established by the legislation of the Russian Federation
Attribution and valuation of coins. Personally, I use two sites. They are in my browser bookmarks. raritetus.ru and moneta-russia.ru The first site is very convenient to view and evaluate coins of the Russian Empire. There is a convenient catalog by year, which allows you to objectively view the entire stock of coins found during the season in a couple of hours. Personally, I had an example when, thanks to this site, I learned that the coin I found was worth not 600 rubles, as the mobile application showed, but 45,000 rubles. It's all in the details. And, in my opinion, there is the most complete catalog of varieties of coins of the Peter the Great period.
moneta-russia.ru – also has a very convenient interface for a yearly calendar made in the form of a table. But, most importantly, this site contains the most accurate catalog of varieties of Soviet coins with detailed illustrations of how one stamp differs from another.
In all my extensive experience of instrument searching, I have never come across rare Soviet coins. But when you sell coins as a whole lot, there is at least some confidence that you are not a complete loser. Although… who knows, maybe someone bought six hundred early tips from me in one lot for five thousand rubles and found one or more coins there, which allowed him, and not me, to buy new winter tires.
Attribution of findings in social networks. This is the most accessible method of determination, but not always objective. Why? Let's say you find a really interesting and rare thing. For example, the seal of one of the headquarters of the Kolchak army. But you don’t know that this is a staff seal; for you it is an incomprehensible brass circle with some kind of text. We scattered the photos among the admins of various groups on VK, in some places the news went through, in others it didn’t, and a day later the note disappeared from active viewing altogether. No one will let you post the same news to groups every day. Yes, even under the first photo the haters will mock. So, in fact, you threw that circle into a bucket of shmurdyak, and in five years you’ll turn it over to non-ferrous metal. And the price of such an item among collectors can reach up to 50 thousand rubles. So, again, your new winter tires have gone down the drain.
Specialized auction sites. There are two main ones like this in RuNet. These are Reviewdetector (reviewdetector.ru) and Samara Numismatics (coins.lave.ru). In order not to be unfounded, I’ll note that there are other similar sites, but these are the ones where it’s easy for an ordinary person to register and receive professional, objective information about your find. The most important word is objective information. Because often owners of rare finds are guided by the price tags that are indicated in the advertisements on Meshka or Avito.
As practice shows, real prices for rare finds can be two to three times lower than those you find in the public domain. Let’s say on Avito exactly the same regimental badge as yours is put up for sale for 60 thousand rubles. And in Samara, you will see that in fact the same sign was recently sold for twenty thousand rubles. And many begin to think that on such sites newcomers are being cheated as suckers. No, that's not true. Simply, this is the real price for your rare find. Well, whether to sell it like that or keep it for yourself is everyone’s business, personal and individual. This is why it is a market, because no one has abolished the freedom of private will.
Thank you for your attention. Special respect to those who read to the end. And, we are waiting for comments under the note.