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Kopeck - Pyotr I
| Issuer | Imperial Russian Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1702 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Irregular |
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| Obverse description | Central field depicts a stylized equestrian figure of the Tsar, shown in right profile astride a horse, rendered in the characteristically flat and schematic manner of late Muscovite wire money. The rider holds a lance or spear directed downward toward a serpent or fallen foe beneath the horse's hooves, a motif traditionally associated with Saint George but here representing the sovereign. Below the horse, the Cyrillic date inscription ҂АѰВ (corresponding to 1702 in the Old Slavonic numeral system) is arranged in two lines, with decorative pellets beneath. The entire design is struck on a roughly oval planchet cut from a silver wire rod, resulting in irregular flan edges characteristic of the wire kopeck denomination. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ҂АѰВ (Translation: ҂А=1000, Ѱ=700, В=2) |
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| Additional information |
Peter I's copper-to-silver kopeck swap in the early 1700s was part of a broader monetary overhaul tied directly to the cost of the Great Northern War against Sweden. These wire-cut "fish scale" coins — struck by hammering a small slug of metal between dies — were already an archaic technology by the time this piece was made, a holdover from 15th-century Muscovite practice that Peter himself despised and moved quickly to abolish in favor of machine-struck round coinage.
By 1718, the wire kopeck was gone entirely. The 1702 issues fall within the transitional window when the old system was already dying but not yet dead.