The Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences, the famous FIAN, bears the name of Pyotr Lebedev, the scientist who first proved experimentally that light exerts pressure. This 1991 commemorative rouble marks the 125th anniversary of his birth.

Lebedev measured the pressure of light first on solids and then on gases, confirming the conclusions of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. In 1911 he left Moscow University together with a group of professors in protest against the actions of Education Minister Kasso, and he died the following year, 1912; that date appears on the reverse beside his birth year, 1866, and the inscription «П.Н. ЛЕБЕДЕВ».

The coin was struck at the Moscow Mint to a design by Alexander Kolodkin. It is one of the six commemorative roubles of 1991, the last year of the USSR.

F-VF grade: the coin has circulated, with even wear and the high points of the portrait smoothed, yet the inscriptions and dates read clearly. It is an affordable example for a science-themed collection or for filling a gap in a set of Soviet commemorative roubles.

Coins from the VPcoins catalogue are collected by seasoned numismatists and newcomers alike.