Kopeck Second people's militia

The Second People's Militia — led by Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky — struck these coins during the campaign to expel the Polish-Lithuanian garrison occupying Moscow, operating a field mint at Yaroslavl in 1612 while the legitimate coinage authority had collapsed entirely. The militia effectively functioned as a parallel government, and issuing coin was a deliberate act of fiscal and political organization, not an afterthought. Yaroslavl became the de facto capital of unoccupied Russia for several months.

The Moscow Kremlin fell to the militia in late October 1612. Regular Romanov-era coinage followed within months of Mikhail's election in February 1613.