1 Kopeck - Elizabeth ММД

Elizabeth's copper coinage of the mid-1750s was produced under a monetary reform inherited from the reign of Anna Ivanovna, which had dramatically reduced the copper ruble's weight standard to 8 rubles per pud — a deliberate debasement intended to generate seigniorage revenue for a perpetually strained imperial treasury. The ММД mint mark denotes the Moscow Mint at Kadashevsky, the primary facility for copper striking during this period.

These pieces circulated hard in a cash economy where copper was the only denomination most peasants ever handled. The three-year window of this type reflects ongoing instability in copper monetary policy that would culminate in the catastrophic overproduction scandals of the 1760s under Catherine II.