Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — struck by hammering silver wire into a die rather than milling blank planchets — were already an archaic technology when this piece was made. Peter despised them, considering them an embarrassment unworthy of a modernizing empire, and spent the early 1700s systematically replacing the type with Western-style milled coinage. Production of wire kopecks ceased entirely by 1718.

The 0.28g weight reflects deliberate debasement relative to earlier Muscovite standards — a quiet fiscal measure that preceded the formal monetary reforms by less than a decade.