Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I introduced silver wire kopecks not as an innovation but as a continuation of the medieval "fish scale" coinage his reforms would soon abolish entirely. The 1703 issues fall in the last years before his 1704 monetary overhaul, which introduced the mechanically struck round coinage modeled on Western European practice. These wire pieces were hand-cut from drawn silver rod, hammered between dies, and carried no consistent shape — a production method essentially unchanged since Ivan the Terrible.

The 1703 date places this kopeck among the final cohort of a dying technology, struck just one year before Peter banned the old wire coinage from further production.