RSFSR Chervonetz - 10 Rouble 1923

Listed as 'Trade Coinage' under the predecessor Soviet system before the USSR [RSFSR], this Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic coin is a 10 Rouble gold coin struck in 1923, the first year of issue. In 1923 the Soviet authorities resurrected the old Slavic name for Ducat, Chervonetz, for their 10 Ruble coin. There is only one specimen of this type of coin struck in 1925 under the USSR. These were later re-struck beginning in 1975-82. This is the scarce 1923 issue, better in hand than the photo, this specimen is NGC MS65, they are also found in proof and are highly sought after.
The early Soviet period saw massive inflation, similar to what was happening in Germany post WWI. The response was also similar, and the only practical way to shore up fiat paper money, that being to back your money with gold and silver bank reserves. Lenin, the philosophical and political leader of the RSFSR had this to say to the Politburo on March 19, 1922, Lenin wrote:
"With the help of all those starving people who are starting to eat each other, who are dying by the millions, and whose bodies litter the roadside all over the country, it is now and only now that we can — and therefore must — confiscate all church property with all the ruthless energy we can still muster. This is precisely the moment the masses will support us most fervently, and rise up against the … religious conspirators."
“Think of how rich some of those monasteries are,” he wrote. “We must have those hundreds of millions (or even billions) of rubles” to consolidate Soviet strength.
The theft, he urged, should take place with “the sort of brutality that they will remember for decades.”
The Bolsheviks seized at least 2.5 billion rubles of gold from Russian churches and spent one million rubles on grain in 1922. The same year, Orthodox Church records show that 2,691 priests, 1,962 monks and 3,447 nuns were murdered. Having been deprived its property, and the people of their means of self-defense, the church entered a period so typified by persecution that it created an entire class of “New Martyrs” to commemorate the victims. The number of Orthodox churches plunged from as many as 50,000 before the revolution to 500 by 1940, and other faith communities suffered similar decimation. [ from the 'American Spectator'; internet accessed from: spectator.org/its-time-to-bury-the-executioner-lenin-for-good/ ; Jun 16, 2019]
Wikipedia has the following on the gold 10 Rouble Chervonetz: 'Simultaneously with the release of paper chervonets, in October 1922 a decision was made to issue chervonetz in the form of coins. According to its weight characteristics (8.6 g, .900 pure) and the size of the chervonetz, it fully corresponded to the pre-revolutionary coin of 10 rubles. The artist of the drawing was the chief medalist of the mint, A.F. Vasyutinskiy (also the author of the final version of the Order of Lenin and the first badge of the TRP ). The face side of the coin depicted the emblem of the RSFSR; on the reverse was a farmer-sower, modeled from the sculpture, I.D. Shadra (the model was two peasants in the village of Pragovaya Shadrinsky Perfiliya Petrovich Kalganov and Kipriyan Kirillovich Avdeev), which now are in the Tretyakov Gallery. All the Chervonetz of this period are dated from 1923.
Metal chervonets were mainly used by the Soviet government for foreign trade operations, but some of the coins also had circulation within Russia. Coins were usually issued in Moscow and from there spread throughout the country. With the beginning of the issue of metal gold chervonets for calculations with foreign countries, this incident is connected: Western countries have resolutely refused to accept these coins, since they depicted Soviet symbols. The solution was found instantly - the Soviet Mint began issuing a gold Chervonetz sample of Nicholas II, unconditionally accepted abroad. Thus, the Soviet government bought the necessary goods abroad for coins depicting the deposed tsar.' The last sentence is interesting since the sources I have show the last gold 10 Roubles of Czar Nicholas II being struck in 1911 and no other gold 'trade coinage' issued in the RSFSR or USSR other than that described here. If this is true then many of the Nicholas 10 Roubles retained a previous date but were struck in 1923 or shortly thereafter. In fact there is the possibility that many RSFSR Chervonetz [KM says 2.751 M were struck] were recoined into Nicholas II 10 Roubles, explaining why the 1923 issue is actually so scarce.
OBVERSE: National coat of arms (hammer and sickle) in front of the rising sun on a scroll document surrounded by barley ears. Lettering: ПРОЛЕТАРИИ ВСЕХ СТРАН, СОЕДИНЯЙТЕСЬ ! Р.С.Ф.С.Р. [Translation: Workers of the world, unite! RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic)
REVERSE: Farmer sowing seeds with plough in front of an industrial skyline and the rising sun. Lettering: ОДИН ЧЕРВОНЕЦ 1923 [Translation: One Chervonets]
EDGE: Smooth with engraving: 1 ЗОЛОТНИК 78.24 ДОЛИ (ММД) ЧИСТОГО ЗОЛОТА [Translation: 1 zolotnik 78.24 parts (MMD) pure gold].