Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — struck by the ancient chekanka method, hammering slivers of silver wire between dies — were already technological anachronisms by 1712. Peter knew it. His minting reforms were actively underway, and the round, machine-struck coinage introduced from 1700 onward was meant to replace exactly these pieces. Yet wire kopecks continued alongside the new issues for years, largely because the peasant economy still trusted them. This 1712 piece falls in the final stretch of that overlap, within a handful of years of the wire kopeck's complete discontinuation.