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Jefimok Rouble - Alexey Mikhailovich Countermarked over 'St. Gallen Thaler'
| Issuer | Russian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1655 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 28.0 g |
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| Obverse description | The obverse displays the host coin — a 1623 St. Gallen Thaler — featuring a rampant bear to the right, the civic emblem of St. Gallen, set within a beaded inner circle. The surrounding Latin legend reads MONETA CIVITATIS SANGALLENSIS with the date 1623 incorporated into the design. Applied prominently over the host coin's field is the Russian countermark of 1655: a circular incuse stamp depicting the crowned double-headed eagle of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich within a beaded border. A rectangular cartouche countermark bearing the date 1655 is also struck in the lower field, authenticating the coin's official re-tariffing for circulation within Muscovy. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
The jefimok program of 1655 was a fiscal emergency measure: Russia lacked both the silver stock and the technical infrastructure to mint roubles at scale, so Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich's treasury simply overstruck imported European thalers with a horseman counterstamp and a date cartouche, declaring them legal tender at 64 kopeks. The St. Gallen thaler — a Swiss cantonal issue — arrived in Muscovy through the Baltic trade networks that funneled western silver eastward.
The program was abandoned within the same year it launched, making the entire jefimok series among the shortest-lived monetary experiments in Russian imperial history.