Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — the last denomination still produced by the medieval "fish-scale" method, hand-cut from drawn silver wire and struck between two dies — were already anachronisms by 1703. Peter despised them. He was actively dismantling the old monetary system and building Western-style milled coinage, yet the wire kopeck survived into his reign simply because the peasant economy demanded a familiar small denomination. Production was finally halted in 1718.

The 1703 date places this piece in the middle of the Northern War against Sweden, when military expenditure was straining the treasury to its limits.