Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — hammered from drawn silver wire, snipped, and struck between dies — were a medieval technology already obsolete across Europe by the time this piece was made. Peter despised them. He was actively dismantling the old Muscovite coinage system in 1702, having launched his milled coinage reforms the previous year, yet wire kopecks continued to be struck through 1718 simply because the peasant economy refused to absorb the new denominations fast enough. This coin is a relic of a monetary system its own issuer was trying to kill.