Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — struck by hammering silver wire between dies — were a medieval technology already obsolete across Europe when this piece was made. Peter despised them, reportedly calling them "watermelon seeds," and by 1718 had abolished the type entirely in favor of milled coinage. The 1702 date places this within his early reform push, just as the Great Northern War against Sweden was consuming the treasury and demanding every administrative modernization Peter could force through.