Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — hammered from thin silver rod stock and struck between hand-cut dies — were already an anachronism by 1706. Peter knew it. His monetary reform of 1700 had introduced machine-struck copper kopecks specifically to replace these fish-scale coins, yet demand for small change kept the old wire series in production for another dozen years. The two systems circulated simultaneously, creating persistent confusion about relative values that the government never fully resolved before the wire kopeck was finally abolished in 1718.