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Kopeck - Peter I
| Issuer | Russian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1698 |
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| Reference(s) | KG#1614, GKH#1171, GKH2#1234 |
| Obverse description | Equestrian effigy of the Tsar depicted as a mounted warrior (traditionally interpreted as St. George or the sovereign himself) galloping to the right, lance couched in the right hand. The figure is rendered in a bold, schematic style characteristic of late Moscow-period wire money. Cyrillic date letters appear beneath the hooves of the horse, recording the year as CS (7206 in the Byzantine Anno Mundi calendar, corresponding to 1698 AD). The flan is irregular in shape, as is typical of chekanka wire coinage produced by cutting silver wire and striking between hand-engraved dies. |
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| Reverse lettering | ЦРЬ И ВЕЛИКIИ КНЯЗЬ ПЁТР АЛЕКСЕЕВИЧЬ ВСЕЯ РОССIИ (Translation: Tsar and Grand Prince Peter Alexeyevich of all Rus) |
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| Additional information |
Peter I's wire kopecks — the last generation of a coin type unchanged in basic form since Ivan the Terrible — were struck by hammering silver wire between hand-cut dies, producing the characteristic irregular fish-scale shape. By 1698, Peter was already planning their abolition; the modernized round coinage introduced from 1700 onward made these obsolete almost immediately. Many were melted or restruck within years of issue, which partially explains survival rates.
The 1698 date places this piece in the final stretch before Poltava, before the Table of Ranks, before nearly everything that defined Petrine Russia.