Kopeck - Mikhail I о М

Mikhail Fyodorovich, the first Romanov tsar, inherited a monetary system that had barely recovered from the Time of Troubles — a decade of civil war, foreign occupation, and near-total economic collapse. The wire-cut kopeck, produced by hand-hammering silver slugs between dies, changed almost nothing from the methods used a century earlier. Consistency was never the goal; these coins were weighed in bulk, not counted individually.

The "о М" mint mark indicates Moscow production. Identifying reign attribution on these pieces relies almost entirely on the abbreviated patronymic in the legend, since the flans themselves vary wildly in shape.