Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 2166. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $46000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

RUSSIA. Nicholas I. 1825-1855. Platinum 6 Rubles. St. Petersburg mint. Dated 1845. Mintage: 3 or 4. Crowned double-headed imperial eagle, holding sceptre and orb, state coat-of-arms on breast with six provincial arms on wings; crown above / Legend and date. Severin 648; Uzdenikov 411; Friedberg 159; KM 178. In NGC slab, graded PF64. ($30,000)

Ex Renaissance Auctions II (6 December 2000), lot 555.

The Renaissance catalogue provides an encapsulated view of the auction appearances of the 1845 6 Rubles:
1) Tolstoi Collection (Hess, 10 March 1913) [not seen]
2) Hermitage Duplicates (Hess 204, 18 February 1931), lot 1355
3) Mikhailovich Collection 482 (pl. XXX, 3), which bears a collector's cachet between the eagles' heads
4) The Renaissance specimen.We cannot confirm the identity of the Tolstoi specimen, but 2, 3, and 4 are clearly different coins, and if the Hermitage owned a second specimen, there are at least four examples of the 1845 6 rubles in existence.