Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — struck by the ancient "fish scale" method of flattening wire and stamping it — were already technological anachronisms by 1709, a deliberate concession to a peasant population deeply suspicious of Western-style milled coinage. Peter had introduced round, machine-struck coins in 1700, but the wire kopeck ran parallel for years simply because rural commerce demanded it. Production finally ceased in 1718, making the 1709 issues among the later survivals of a minting tradition stretching back to Ivan the Terrible.