Kopeck - Peter I

Peter I's wire kopecks — the chekanka variety struck by the old hammered method — were a deliberate anachronism by 1716, already being phased out in favor of milled coinage as part of Peter's sweeping monetary reforms begun in 1698. These tiny slivers of silver, shaped on drawn wire rather than cut planchets, had been the backbone of Russian small change for two centuries. The mint continued striking them through 1718 primarily to ease rural acceptance of the new system, not because there was enthusiasm for the old technology.