3 Kopecks - Nikolai I Pattern, Wide line, Novodel

Novodels — official restrike patterns produced by the St. Petersburg Mint for collectors, often decades after the original dies were used — occupy an awkward space in Russian numismatics. The Imperial Mint produced them well into the late 19th century, sometimes from original dies, sometimes from newly cut ones replicating earlier designs. Bit# 916 places this piece within Bitkin's pattern classification, but the "wide line" distinction points to a specific die characteristic used to differentiate this striking from otherwise near-identical novodel variants of the 1827 type.

Nikolai I's copper coinage of this period was itself contentious — monetary reforms under his reign reshaped the assignat ruble system that would eventually collapse in 1839 under Kankrin's reform.