Kopeck - Alexey Mikhailovich о М

Wire money of this period — hand-cut slivers of silver rod hammered between dies — was already an archaic technology by the mid-17th century, retained by the Muscovite mints largely because the irregular shape defeated clipping. Alexey Mikhailovich inherited the practice from his father Mikhail Fyodorovich and would spend much of his reign struggling with the coinage system it produced. The monetary crisis that followed his 1654 currency reform, when copper kopecks were forced to circulate at par with silver, ultimately triggered the Copper Riot of 1662.