Jefimok Rouble - Alexey Mikhailovich Countermarked over 'Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle Thaler'

The jefimok was never minted — it was made. In 1655, facing a shortage of silver bullion and the cost of ongoing war with Poland-Lithuania, the Russian treasury ordered imported west European thalers to be countermarked with a horseman punch and a date cartouche, transforming foreign coin into domestic currency by decree alone. Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle thalers were among the dozens of acceptable host types, provided they met the weight threshold.

The experiment lasted a single year. Widespread refusal by merchants and foreign traders — who understood that a countermarked thaler was worth less than the original coin it had been struck over — forced the policy's abandonment in 1656.