Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 1625. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

RUSSIA, Tsars of Russia. Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov. 1645-1676. AR Half Yefimok (Jefimok) (14.63 g, 2h). Dated 1655. A Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle taler of Friedrich V, halved and countermarked with two punches: horseman right with monogram below in dotted circle, and date in plain rectangle. For coin: Davenport 6492; KM 146.1; for countermarks: Efimki 870 (this coin); Kaim I p. 129. Coin VF, c/ms VF, toned, flan crack from re-striking. Very rare.

Ex Willy Fuchs Collection (Sotheby's, 24 April 1997), lot 65; purchased from L. Södermann, 5 April 1967.

The half yefimok is a problematic issue. There is no documentary evidence for its production, and its extreme rarity, with approximately twenty examples known, suggests it was not a regular issue. It has been proposed that the fractional yefimiki were used to balance a shipment of full yefimiki, when light weight talers caused a batch to be slightly under the normative value. It has been noted that most half yefimiki were cut prior to re-striking, but that some genuine examples are known that were cut after the countermarks were applied.