Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — the ancient chekanka type hammered between dies on a flattened silver wire blank — were already technological anachronisms by 1716, a deliberate holdover kept in circulation alongside the new milled coinage Peter had introduced after 1700. The Tsar reportedly despised them, associating the primitive production method with Muscovite backwardness, yet discontinuing them entirely risked disrupting the peasant economy that had used little else for generations.

Production of the wire kopeck ceased entirely by 1718.