Weapons Designer Georgy Shpagin

Obverse

in the centre there is a relief image of the National Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation and over it a semicircular inscription along the rim: "РОССИЙСКАЯ ФЕДЕРАЦИЯ" (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) framed by doubled rhombuses on both sides, under the emblem, in three lines, there is an inscription: "БАНК РОССИИ" (BANK OF RUSSIA), the coin’s par value "25 РУБЛЕЙ" (25 RUBLES), and the year of issue "2019 г." (2019), and on the right there is a mint trade mark.

Reverse

a relief image of the Shpagin submachine gun and the inscription ‘ППШ-41’ (PPSh-41) on the left; along the rim there are the inscriptions ‘ОРУЖИЕ ВЕЛИКОЙ ПОБЕДЫ’ (WEAPONS OF THE GREAT VICTORY) at the top and ‘Г.С. ШПАГИН’ (GEORGY SHPAGIN) at the bottom.

Authors

The artists: E.V. Kramskaya (obverse), O.G. Shepel (reverse).
The sculptors: A.A. Dolgopolova (obverse), computer simulation (reverse).
Mint: Moscow Mint (ММД).
The edge: 180 corrugations.

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Georgy Semyonovich Shpagin (1897-1952) was a Soviet small arms designer. He is best known as the inventor of the PPSh-41 submachine gun, which was adopted by the Red Army in December 1940.

In the design of his submachine gun Shpagin focused on production speed and cost reduction, which were valued in the run-up to the war. As a result, its exceptionally simple design became one of the main advantages of the PPSh-41. Its technological effectiveness and low requirements for equipment meant it could even be produced at general-purpose factories. Being a reliable, simple and easy to maintain gun with high combat characteristics, such as high firing rate, precision and accuracy of fire, the PPSh-41 was the staple automatic weapon of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.