Kopeck - Alexey Mikhailovich Copper, Pskov

This issue belongs to the disastrous "Copper Riot" coinage, a fiscal emergency measure introduced by Tsar Alexis in 1655 when war with Poland and Sweden had drained the treasury. The government minted copper kopecks at the nominal value of silver ones, then demanded taxes be paid in silver while paying state salaries in copper — a policy so transparently exploitative that it triggered the Moscow uprising of 1662, in which thousands marched on the tsar's palace at Kolomenskoye. Alexis restored silver coinage the following year and ordered the copper dies destroyed.

Pskov was one of several provincial mints activated specifically for this emergency production.