Kopeck - Alexey Mikhailovich Copper, Moscow

These copper kopecks were struck as part of a disastrous monetary experiment by Tsar Alexis — the government needed to fund the ongoing war with Poland and began paying soldiers and officials in copper coins legally mandated to circulate at the value of silver. The population accepted copper for taxes reluctantly and not at all for grain, which vanished from markets almost immediately. By 1662 the exchange rate had collapsed to twenty-five copper kopecks per silver one, and the resulting Copper Riot in Moscow that summer left hundreds dead in the streets before the tsar personally promised reform. The copper coinage was demonetized and withdrawn in 1663.