The jefimok was not a coin Russia minted — it was a foreign thaler requisitioned, tested with a hammer die, and forced into circulation by decree. In 1655, facing chronic silver shortages and the enormous costs of war with Poland-Lithuania and Sweden simultaneously, Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich ordered incoming Western thalers countermarked with a horseman punch and a date cartouche, converting them into roubles by fiat. The Overijssel rijksdaalder of 1620 represents one of the older host coins pressed into this service, having circulated in trade networks for over three decades before being seized and restruck.
The experiment collapsed within a year. Russian merchants refused to accept jefimoki at par with silver kopeks, the arbitrage against copper money caused runs on silver, and the whole monetary reform was abandoned by 1659 — one episode in the broader "Copper Riot" crisis that nearly destabilized the tsardom.
The jefimok was not a coin Russia minted — it was a foreign thaler requisitioned, tested with a hammer die, and forced into circulation by decree. In 1655, facing chronic silver shortages and the enormous costs of war with Poland-Lithuania and Sweden simultaneously, Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich ordered incoming Western thalers countermarked with a horseman punch and a date cartouche, converting them into roubles by fiat. The Overijssel rijksdaalder of 1620 represents one of the older host coins pressed into this service, having circulated in trade networks for over three decades before being seized and restruck.
The experiment collapsed within a year. Russian merchants refused to accept jefimoki at par with silver kopeks, the arbitrage against copper money caused runs on silver, and the whole monetary reform was abandoned by 1659 — one episode in the broader "Copper Riot" crisis that nearly destabilized the tsardom.