Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 2089. Estimate $400.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

RUSSIA, Moldavia & Wallachia. Catherine II, the Great. 1762-1796. Æ Pattern Para/3Denga. Sadagura mint. Dated 1771. Crowned imperial double-headed eagle, holding sceptre and orb, coat-of-arms of Moldavia and Wallachia on breast; S• below / Crowned monogram; three pellets around. Bitkin 1266; Uzdenikov 4909; Brekke 3; KM Pn1. In PCGS slab, graded AU55. ($400)

During the Russian-Turkish war (1768-1774), the Russians, under general P. A. Rumyantzev, pushed the Turks out of the Romanian territories of Moldavia and Wallachia. The contract to supply coinage for the newly conquered districts was awarded to the Polish baron Peter Gartenberg, who established a mint at his new estate of Sadagura ("Garden Mountain" in Russian), striking copper coins of dual denomination, in Turkish Para and Russian Denga. Metal from captured Turkish cannons was used for the coins. The first trial issues utilized imperial Russian symbols, but the regular circulation strikes merely featured the Moldavia and Wallachia arms. Gartenberg's Sadagura mint operated for only four years, closing in 1774.