RUSSIA

Face value - 5 kopecks
Metal - copper
Mintage - 65 mln. pieces
In circulation since 1867 to 1881

Two headed eagle

Two headed eagle, looking both to East and to West, had been taken as a symbol of power in Byzantium Empire, which ceased existence in 1453 when Turkey invaded Constantinople (Istanbul). Due to a legend it appeared after two empires, Eastern by Constantine I and Western by Justinian I, both had having one headed eagle on its coat of arms, had united. Ivan III, having married Sofia, a niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, became a successor of Byzantium Empire and took a title of "czar" or "Cesar". A black two headed eagle, which Russian czar began to use as a symbol, had been the main part of Russian state coat of arms till 1917. On its chest Moscow coat of arms was placed, its heads were crowned, it held a sceptre in the right clutch and a orb in the left, main coats of arms were placed on its wings. On the right there were coats of arms of Kazansky, Polsky, Tavrichesky kingdoms and united one of Kievsky, Vladimirsky and Novgorodsky princedoms. On the left there were coats of arms of Astrakhansky, Sibirsky, Gruzinsky kingdoms and one of Great princedom of Finland.

Face value - 10 roubles
Metal - brass-copper-nickel
Mintage - 20 mln. pieces
In circulation since 2001

40th Anniversary of space flight by Yu.A.Gagarin

On the 12th of April, 1961 Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was the first man to make a flight to outer space by space ship-satellite "Vostok". It took him 1 hour and 48 minutes to fly around the Earth and to come back to the Earth surface. This flight proved, that a man can explore space as well as to come back home safe and sound. The day of the first flight became a great holiday not only for soviet people, and nowadays it's being celebrated as Cosmonautics Day. Yu.Gagarin tragically died in 1968 during a training airplane flight. The same year International Aircraft Federation instituted the Yu.Gagarin golden medal, which the best pilots-cosmonauts are annually awarded. The coin demonstrates a high level of technologies and defense: within "0" digit there are hidden pictures of the face value "10" and the word "rub", which could be seen by visual angle change.