Kopeck - Mikhail I

Mikhail Romanov's accession in 1613 ended the Time of Troubles — a decade of famine, civil war, and foreign occupation that had gutted Russian minting capacity entirely. These early Romanov kopecks were struck by hammer using the same wire-money technique that Russian mints had employed since Ivan III, a medieval method already obsolete across most of Europe. The flans were cut from drawn silver wire and hammered between hand-cut dies, producing the characteristic fish-scale shape.

Mikhail's first years on the throne were financially precarious enough that coin silver purity remained a genuine policy concern, with the state closely guarding the .960 fineness standard inherited from his predecessors.