Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 2220. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $2600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

RUSSIA. Nicholas II. 1894-1917. Nickel Pattern 5 Kopeks. Brussels mint; Elikum Babayantz, mintmaster(?). Dated 1911. Double-headed imperial eagle with crown above, holding sceptre and orb, shield of St. George on breast with eight provincial coats-of-arms on wings / Denomination. Bitkin 355; Uzdenikov 4048; Brekke 1; KM Pn160. In NGC slab, graded MS65. ($2000)

The 1911 trial pieces were struck by the Brussels mint in a bid to win a Russian coinage contract. The mint copied the marks of the St. Petersburg mintmaster Elikum Babayantz , apparently without permission, and the reverse die of the 5 kopek piece cracked early on – two factors that probably doomed their proposal.