| XVI – XVII centuries. Elena Glinskaya’s currency reform. |
As Russian princedoms were gradually united into one state, the presence of a great number of coins of various weight and appearance started making difficulties for trading. In 1534 Elena Glinskaya, the mother of infant Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584), carried out the currency reform. As a result, all old Russian and foreign coins were forbidden and replaced by the new national coins. Three mints were left: in Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod, where coins of one type were struck. These were kopeika, denga (1/2 of kopeika) and polushka (1/4 of kopeika). A rider with a spear was depicted on the kopeika, and hence its name was derived (a spear is “kopio” in Russian), a rider with a sabre was on the denga, and a bird was on the polushka. 100 kopeikas constituted one ruble, 50 – one poltina, 10 – one hryvnia, 3 – one altyn, but all these monetary units were only counting concepts.
Coin minting represented a combination of elements of the Golden Horde and Russian money business. The primitive technique of manual minting out of wire with help of two stamps adopted from Tatars, as well as the coin laconic design, noticeably lightened the coin production process and allowed producing great quantities of coins within a short time. But at the same time these very characteristics of the minting process tempted many craftsmen to produce false (“thievish”) kopeikas.
In 1654 minting of coins with big face values – rubles, poltinas, polupoltinas (half a poltina), altyns – was started, because petty coins were extremely inconvenient for large-scale commercial deals. Rubles were minted of silver, poltinas – of copper, polupoltinas – of silver. Later on the so-called “efimoks” (West-European thalers with the stamp and date overminting) appeared.
There soon appeared copper kopeikas, which did not differ from the silver ones in appearance. By the governmental decree the copper kopeikas were equated with the silver ones, which was very profitable for the treasury but not favorable at all for the people, because the war with Poland was going on, the money decreased in value, the prices for food rose, and famine started. In 1662 the so-called “Copper Rebellion” started in Moscow. The frightened government canceled the new money. Minting of silver kopeikas, dengas and polushkas was renewed.
Consequently, since 1534 and till the end of the XVII century the Russian coins remained practically invariable, only the names of the tsars in the inscriptions were changed.
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