MOSCOW - New Russians, extravagant businessmen famed for their love of gold and deep pockets, might now have to start thinking about getting wide ones too.
Russia's central bank will next week put into circulation gold coins aimed at the larger wallet - each one about the size of a compact disc and weighing one kg (2.2 lb).
"The coins are legal tender in the Russian Federation and at face value must be accepted for settlements without restrictions," the bank said in a statement on Thursday.
Yet even well-heeled Muscovites may shrink from paying a restaurant tab with one of the 100 coins the bank plans to issue. With a face value barely exceeding $300, each coin is made of gold worth $10,000.
The coins, to be sold in commercial banks, would each sell for some $13,000 in the first instance and could reach $17,000 in secondary sales, one of the commercial banks said.
The giant coins are still unlikely to enter the Guinness Book of Records. To celebrate the new millennium, the People's Bank of China in 2000 issued gold coins weighing 10 kg each. /Reuters/