Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — struck by hammering silver wire between dies rather than milling blanks — were already anachronistic by 1703. Peter despised them, calling them "fish scales" for their irregular, flattened shape, and their replacement with round milled coinage was among his earliest monetary reforms. The Moscow mint was still producing them while Peter simultaneously built the infrastructure to abolish them; this piece dates to that transitional window.