Heads or SAMBO? New “SAMBO” coins issued

Today, 6 November 2013, is a real red-letter day for numismatists with an interest in sport. The Bank of Russia has issued some new coins dedicated to SAMBO. Collectors are excitedly awaiting the moment when they’ll be able to get their hands on the silver coin with a nominal value of three roubles and the gold coin with a nominal value of 50 roubles. These coins have one feature in common: on the reverse side they have an image of two Sambo wrestlers in relief, with the word “SAMBO”. And that means that if someone wants to play tossing coins with these new coins, instead of calling heads or tails they’ll be able to call heads or SAMBO.

These coins have been issued to coincide with the 75^th anniversary of our favourite sport. The project is a joint initiative by FIAS and the Russian Sambo Federation. The silver coin (with a precious metal content of 31.1g and an alloy standard of .925) has been minted in a quantity of 3,000, and the gold coin (with a precious metal content of 7.78g and an alloy standard of .999) in a quantity of 750. The new coins are legal tender for cash transactions. However, no one is likely to use these coins to pay for anything at their nominal value: for one thing, their real value is much higher, and for another, for SAMBO fans the value of these coins is even higher than that.

Alexander Solomakhin

www.sambo.sport