Tag: #Russia

On the banks of the Dniester

Something a little unusual from a very unheard of region of Europe this month. When I first saw these, I knew I had to add them to my collection due to the unorthodox shape and material used to make them. Brightly coloured, and hailing from the break-away state of Transnistria.

Each coin is made of a composite polymer plastic and weigh roughly 1g each and have the feel of fairground ride tokens. The coins are all roughly the same size and average around 27mm in diameter.
On the reverse of each coin is the logo of the Transnistrian Republican Bank along with the value of the coin. The obverse of each coin features an important figure from Russian history, all of whom has some connection with Transnistria in some way:

  • On the 1 rouble is a portrait of famed Russian general Alexander Suvorov (1730-1800). He was responsible for founding the city of Tiraspol in 1792 which is now the capital city of Transnistria. A statue of him sits in the central square of the city.
  • The 3 rouble features a portrait of Francois Sainte de Wollant (1752-1818), a Dutch engineer who was responsible for building fortresses in the newly acquired land captured from the Ottomans during the Russian expansion of the 18th century. He built the fortress in Tiraspol and has a park named after him in the city.
  • The 5 rouble coin shows Pyotr Rumyantsev (1725-1796) who was another Russian general who led armies against the Ottomans in the 18th century. He was known as the governor of ‘Little Rus’ which encompasses much of the territory occupied by modern Ukraine today.
  • The 10 rouble shows a portrait of Catherine the Great (1729-1796) who ruled Russia as Empress during the period when the lands comprising Transnistria was captured from the Ottomans.

Modern Transnistria sits along the Dniester river between the countries of Ukraine and Moldova. A break away state, it has only been officially recognised by three other states, also break away states, Abkhazia, Artsakh, and South Ossetia.
Transnistria gained it origins as an autonomous region within the Ukrainian SSR in 1924, but wouldn’t declare full independence until 1991 with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. A year later, fighting would break out in the region between Transnistria and Moldova. A ceasefire would be called only 5 months later with a joint commission of Moldova, Russia and Transnistria seeking to maintain peace in the region.

To date, the regions situation has still remained unsolved but it has developed it’s own semi-presidential government, parliament, police, military, postal system, vehicle registration system, and as can be seen in this post, it’s own currency.


From Terrible to Great

After a brief month long hiatus I am back to writing updates to my coin collection. This time it is two very small coins from the frosty lands of Russia.

Both coins are known as ‘wire money’ due to the way they are created. A strand of silver wire is cut into pieces and then beaten flat with the design to be imprinted. A method inherited from the Tartar overlords of the Golden Horde who controlled much of Russia during it’s early history. Russian peoples would adopt the same practice in the 1360’s, imitating the Mongol coins, before eventually designing their own.

Both coins I acquired come from infamous rulers of Russia. The coin on the left dates from the mid to late 16th century and comes from the reign of Ivan IV, more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible. The coin on the right dates from the late 17th century from the reign of Peter I, again, more well known as Peter the Great. Both of these rulers have much history dedicated to them, and I could write a very long post detailing everything about it. However, since this is a blog aimed more towards numismatics, I instead would like to focus more on the history of wire money itself.

During the early reign of Ivan IV (1530’s) Russian coinage was reformed. Coins weighing just over half a gram were minted in Novgorod, and would feature a horse and rider wielding a spear. These coins were known as kopeks and that is what is shown in the pictures here.

Sadly the coin dating from Ivan IV’s reign is badly struck, so you can only just see the spear and front of the horse. In Russian, the word “spear” is similarly close to the word “Kopek”, and it is often assumed that is how the coin got it’s name. However this etymology is often disputed. Modern Russian coins feature an updated version of the rider carrying a spear, continuing the tradition.

Whilst Novgorod was minting kopeks, in Moscow a smaller coin was minted which was valued as half a kopek. These coins were called ‘denga’, the plural of which is ‘dengi’ and is the word that is still used today in Russia to refer to money.

Originally the amount of dengi in circulation was much higher than that of kopeks, but by the reign of Peter I it had flipped. This was due mainly to heavy devaluation of the coinage, with silver kopeks dropping in weight to just over a quarter of a gram by 1717 when it was discontinued. It would be replaced under Peter I’s coin reforms by the Rouble. Becoming, at the time, one of the most advanced monetary systems in Europe based on the decimal system.

Kopeks however, would still be minted during this period, but no longer out of precious metals. In fact, the kopek would continue to exist until 2009 when minting for circulation would finally cease. By the time of it’s final year the value of a kopek had diminished so much it would roughly equate to 1/60th of an American cent.

Getting the measure

We are returning to Russia again this month and with something slightly different from the norm. Now in the picture above we see a perfect copper replica of the Russian half-poltinnik which originally was minted in silver during the reign of Czar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676). However, it is not a forgery. It is actually a coin weight used to measure the quality of the afore-mentioned half-poltinnik.

Coin weights themselves were often made of a variety of materials, ranging from metals to glass. Most often bore an inscription of the coin they were supposed to represent, or were straight up copies like the one I have acquired.

Not limited to the medieval period, the history of coin weights date back to ancient Ptolemaic and Byzantine times, and there is significant evidence that they were also used in ancient China.

(The inscription reads: “Czar and Grand Prince Feodor Alexeyevich of all Rus”)

This coin weight was minted during a period of monetary reform in Russia. In the middle of the 17th century there was signs of a strengthening of monetary currency, growth of the Russian internal market, reinforcement of Russian state power, and the annexation of the Ukraine in 1654 made monetary reform a necessity. These reforms were carried out in 1654 with the aim of introducing a new set of small and large denomination coins to replace the silver wire kopecks previously in circulation. Inspiration was drawn from Western currencies, with the new silver Rouble taking it’s ideas from the West European thaler. Many of the new silver roubles were made by simply counter-marking existing thalers (or other coins of the same weight and value). Half-poltinniks were made by simply cutting these Western thalers into quarters.

However, there was much public mistrust over this new coinage due in part to unfamiliarity and the way the coins were issued to the population. Thus, just a year later in 1655, the reforms were abandoned. This was shortly followed by a mass striking of new copper coins using the old denga and kopeck system, with many of the designs modelled on the old familiar silver wire kopecks.

Ironically the mass striking of the new coins led to inflation quite quickly, and with the sharp rising of prices, the economy in disruption, the Copper Riot of 1662 happened in Moscow. This led to the eventual nullification of all copper coins in 1663 and would not see a reintroduction until much later.

From Russia with love…

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This month I guess I have to make up for not posting an update at the end of October.  There was a reason for this, and that was due to a trip to Moscow, which went from the 31st October till the 4th November.  It was my first time exploring Russia, and I will attest that the country did not disappoint.  However, this is not a travel blog, but one devoted to coins, so instead I will talk about what new additions I added to my collection and other numismatic things I saw.

In the picture shown above I decided to buy a small book detailing the history of Russian coinage.  A nice little piece of interest which I picked up for roughly 500 roubles (~£6) in the Kremlin gift shop of all places.  Although not long, it does have a succinct run through of Russian coinage and pretty much does what it says on the front.  It does not go into too much detail, but the main allure was the comprehensive photo gallery which takes up roughly two thirds of the book.  Something I think that would come in very handy when trying to decipher any extremely worn Russian coins I may come across in future.

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The next thing I bought was a 200th anniversary commemorative collection of 2 and 5 rouble coins which detail Russia’s victory over Napoleon in 1812.  Similar to some coins produced here in the UK in 2015 to celebrate victory over Napoleon at Waterloo, Russia’s commemorative set details Napoleons invasion of Russia, his march towards Moscow, the Pyrrhic victory at Borodino, and his eventual retreat from Russia itself.

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The obverse side of the coins depict the generals who fought on the side of the Russia, and monuments to commemorate the eventual victory over Napoleon.

As for other numismatic items seen in Moscow, I must admit not to witnessing much.  In the Russian history museum there were a couple of cases showcasing gold coins from around the world as well as from Russia’s past.  It was interesting to see them up close, and how small such coins were.  And as ever, it always amuses me to see British coins on display in foreign lands.  Unfortunately, photo’s were almost impossible to attain as the museum curators were ever vigilant in stopping photography.

Moscow is also home to the Bank of Russia money museum, but sadly, I did not have time to visit.  Visits to the museum are by guided tour only, and have strict operating times.  Most of which clashed with other plans I had during my visit to the city.  So this is still on the list for when I next return to Moscow.

I also sadly did not get much chance to visit many coin sellers in the city.  Partly this was due to the location of many of them being away from the areas I would be frequenting.  Secondly, I read that it is difficult to transport items older than a certain age outside of Russia without the proper paperwork.  I can’t say for certain that this information is correct, as I got conflicting information pertaining to it.  Some places said it didn’t exist at all, whilst others placed a limit on it being items up to a 100 years old.  Some even went as far to suggest that items no older than 50 years could be taken!  So to save myself the trouble, I decided to settle on the commemorative coin set instead.  It wasn’t too expensive coming in around 2000 roubles (~£25), which to be honest is probably roughly the same price I would have paid for something similar here in the UK.  All in all, it was a fantastic trip, and I wholly recommend a visit.  A re-run of which I hope to achieve next year.

Collection Update May ’18

Getting back into the swing of things, this month I have a few coins from Russia which have been added to my collection.

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Starting from left to right, there is a 10 Pennia (1905) from the province of Finland, which was a part of Russia until it gained it’s independence in 1917.  In the middle is a 1/2 Kopek from 1747, also known as a Denga. Finally on the right is a Rouble proof from 1990 depicting the Russian composer Tchaikovsky.

The name Denga was the original name for Russian monetary units.  Starting back in the middle of the 14th century, denghi were originally made from silver wire which had been cut to a prescribed length and then beaten flat.  The flattened disks would then be placed between two coin dies and hammered.  Thus resulting in rather elongated oval shaped coins.  Due to poor Russian monetary policies, the denga coins were devalued constantly until the great coin reforms of Peter the Great in 1700.  Denghi were re-minted as much larger copper coins, as the previous silver coins had been reduced so much in size they weighed on average 0.14g.  The name denga was used until the middle of the 19th century when it was changed on the coins to Kopek, with a single denga equating to 1/2 Kopek.

The denga in the pictures shown dates from the reign of Tsarina Elizabeth (1741-62).  The daughter of Peter the Great, she is remembered fondly for being strongly opposed to Prussian policies and attempted German influences in the Russian court as well as not executing a single person throughout the entirety of her reign.  During her reign she led the country during the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War.

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Finland for most of it’s history was not an independent country.  It didn’t gain it’s independence until 1917 after a short and brutal civil war.  Prior to this Finland was an autonomous province of Russia which it gained in 1809 after the Finnish war against Sweden.  Prior to this Finland was part of the Swedish Empire, due to Swedish colonisation and expansion from the 13th century.  During the 20th century, Finland fought twice against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War to retain it’s independence.  Although gaining independence from Russia, Finland continued with the Markka as it’s currency and would eventually switch to the Euro in 2002 after joining the EU in 1995.

Now some technical information.  Proof coins are usually early samples of a coin issue, traditionally as sample coins to check dies and equipment.  Today they are struck in higher quantities for the numismatic collector market.

Most proof coins are double struck by highly polished dies.  This process allows the details to be much sharper in contrast to regular issue coins, as well as being highly polished to an almost mirror sheen.  Another difference between proof and regular issue is that proof coins are individually handled after being struck whereas regular issue are normally thrown into collection bins on mass.  The ‘proof’ moniker does not refer to the condition of the coin, but more in regards to it’s historical background and through the process in which they are made.