Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — the chekanka or "scales money" — were struck by the ancient method of hammering blanks cut from drawn silver wire, a technique largely unchanged since the medieval period. By 1707, Peter had already launched his sweeping monetary reform, introducing the milled copper kopeck, but wire coinage continued in parallel production during the transition years. This particular issue sits at the cusp of that changeover.

The wire kopeck series was officially discontinued in 1718, making 1707 a mid-reform survival of a medieval minting tradition that Peter himself considered an embarrassment to his modernizing empire.