Poltina - Peter I

The poltina — half a ruble — was reintroduced under Peter I as part of his sweeping monetary reform of 1701–1704, which sought to align Russian coinage with Western European practice. Prior to this reform, Russia had relied almost exclusively on small hand-struck wire kopecks; a milled silver coin of this size and weight was a deliberate statement of modernization, produced with machinery brought in partly through Peter's contacts from his 1697–1698 Grand Embassy tour of Europe.

The 1705 date places this piece among the earliest years of the reformed coinage, when production techniques were still being stabilized at the Moscow mint. Bit#558 specimens are noted for inconsistent edge treatment across surviving examples.