Kopeck - Alexey Mikhailovich о М

Wire money — the so-called "fish scale" kopecks — were produced by a process unchanged since Ivan the Terrible: silver wire was cut into measured segments, each hammered between dies on an anvil. Alexey Mikhailovich's reign saw this coinage survive a catastrophic monetary experiment when, in 1656, his government introduced copper kopecks at par with silver, triggering the Copper Riot of 1662 in Moscow. Thousands were killed or exiled to Siberia before the copper coins were withdrawn. Silver wire kopecks resumed prominence almost immediately after.