Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Kopeck - Peter I
| Issuer | Russian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1704 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | On this wire money kopeck, the obverse bears a Cyrillic inscription arranged in two lines across the irregularly shaped flan, reading the date in Church Slavonic numeral notation АΨД (1704), struck below the horseman's feet as is customary for this series. The lettering is boldly rendered in the hammered style characteristic of early Petrine coinage, with individual characters occupying the full height of the available field. The flan edges are ragged and uneven, consistent with the wire-cutting technique used to prepare blanks for this denomination. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Cyrillic |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Peter I introduced the silver kopeck in 1704 as part of his sweeping monetary reform — the same overhaul that created the ruble as a decimalized unit and effectively dismantled the old wire-money system that had persisted since the medieval period. The tiny wire-cut "fish scale" kopecks these replaced had been produced by hand-hammering silver wire for centuries, and replacing them with machine-struck coinage was as much a political statement about modernization as it was a practical monetary decision.
Production was short-lived. By 1718, copper had taken over the kopeck denomination entirely, making the silver issue a transitional artifact of only fourteen years.