Mikhail Romanov's election to the throne in 1613 came at the end of the Time of Troubles — a decade of civil war, famine, Polish and Swedish intervention, and at least three false tsars. The wire-cut kopecks struck in his name during these first years were produced at the Moscow mint while the state was functionally bankrupt and the coinage infrastructure was barely intact after years of disruption.
The МОС/КВА mint mark was applied in two lines across the tiny flan, a practice that frequently resulted in partial or off-center strikes. Most examples show the mint designation incompletely rendered.
Mikhail Romanov's election to the throne in 1613 came at the end of the Time of Troubles — a decade of civil war, famine, Polish and Swedish intervention, and at least three false tsars. The wire-cut kopecks struck in his name during these first years were produced at the Moscow mint while the state was functionally bankrupt and the coinage infrastructure was barely intact after years of disruption.
The МОС/КВА mint mark was applied in two lines across the tiny flan, a practice that frequently resulted in partial or off-center strikes. Most examples show the mint designation incompletely rendered.