Alexey Mikhailovich ruled during one of the most financially catastrophic experiments in Russian monetary history: the Copper Riot of 1662. Desperate to fund prolonged wars against Poland and Sweden, his government began issuing copper kopecks at par with silver — the same wire-cut "fish scale" denomination as this piece. Inflation followed immediately, and Muscovites who had accepted copper wages found their purchasing power destroyed within months. The riot that followed in Moscow was suppressed with mass executions, and the copper kopeck was withdrawn by 1663.
Silver wire coinage of this reign thus carries a specific economic distinction: it was the standard the copper coins failed to replace.
Alexey Mikhailovich ruled during one of the most financially catastrophic experiments in Russian monetary history: the Copper Riot of 1662. Desperate to fund prolonged wars against Poland and Sweden, his government began issuing copper kopecks at par with silver — the same wire-cut "fish scale" denomination as this piece. Inflation followed immediately, and Muscovites who had accepted copper wages found their purchasing power destroyed within months. The riot that followed in Moscow was suppressed with mass executions, and the copper kopeck was withdrawn by 1663.
Silver wire coinage of this reign thus carries a specific economic distinction: it was the standard the copper coins failed to replace.