Kopek, denga, polushka: An English-language guide to Russian wire money

Kopeks of Tsar Michael
These are about 10 grams of silver, just over a week's wages in the early 17th century.
As of late 2024, the value of this amount of silver is less than the U.S. minimum hourly wage.
Kopeks of Tsar Michael

Introduction

Russian wire money, hand-struck between the 1360s and 1710s, is a fascinating part of the rich history of pre-Imperial Russia. There are numerous varieties of these coins, some of which are available for a few dollars, and others of which are unavailable at any price, having only one known specimen.

Unfortunately, it can be hard to find English-language resources about these coins and hard to use Russian-language resources. It doesn't help that the denominations that originally referred to these coins eventually referred to their copper replacements, or that there are just too many varieties to be included in guides to world coinage. Just developing a basic understanding of the coins can be a chore. However, by assembling the most useful resources in one place, I hope this page makes it easy for English-speaking collectors to begin collecting these coins.

A brief history of Russian wire money

Grivna, the dominant means of making large trades during the coinless period
(cropped photo from Wikipedia licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)
Grivna, the dominant means of making large trades during the coinless period

The Bank of Russia Museum describes a two-century stretch from the 12th to the 14th century as a "coinless period."† During this time, due to larger regional changes in trading patterns, the various Eastern Slavic lands went from being places in which (mostly foreign) coins helped facilitate trade to ones in which coins were rarely used. In their place were tools of barter like beads, spindles, or furs. Large monetary exchanges were made using precious metal bars, known as grivna. Silver grivna weights were eventually standardized within each principality. Kyivian ones were smaller than the ones from the Novgorod Republic, which were about 200 grams, the exchange equivalent of around 500 squirrel pelts. A modified version of the word "grivna" is, today, the unit of currency in Ukraine, the hryvnia.

Reenactment of Mongol military movement
(cropped photo from Wikipedia licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)
Reenactment of Mongol military movement

The Tatar Mongols of the Golden Horde would eventually reintroduce the concept of coinage to the lands they conquered in the 13th century. The Golden Horde minted coins by taking silver wire, cutting it, and hammering it flat. In the early 1360s, the conquered Europeans imitated this practice using Mongol designs. In the late 1370s, The Principality of Moscow, under Dmitry of the Don, started to use its own designs, with neighbors following suit. The wire was measured out in fractions of grivna, so coin weights were standardized by principality. Even when, in the late 15th century, Dmitry's great-grandson, Ivan III, ended Moscow's status as Mongol tributary and united the Russian lands into a single country, different places continued using different designs and different weights.

Ivan III's grandson, Ivan IV, inherited Moscow's throne in 1533 at age three. Almost immediately, his mother and regent, Elena Glinskaya, reformed Russian currency. Coins weighing 0.68 grams, close in weight to the 0.78-gram coins minted in (Veliky) Novgorod, were called "kopeks." Almost all of these had text on one side and a horse and rider with a spear pointed toward the lower right on the other. Since "spear" is similar to "kopek" in Russian, it's often stated that that's how the coin was named, but that etymology is disputed. It might have been named after a Central Asian Mongol khan or after a Russian word for saving money.

Kopek of Ivan IV
Kopek of Ivan IV (photo from Wikipedia in public domain)

A half-kopek, closer to the weight of the standard coin of Moscow, was called a "denga," the plural of which, "dengi," remains to this day the Russian word for "money." It has a similar design but with the rider holding a saber. A quarter-kopek, tiny and far less common, was a polushka, with a bird in place of the horse and rider.

Denga of Ivan IV
Denga of Ivan IV (photo from Wikipedia in public domain)

The denga was ubiquitous during the reign of Ivan IV, later known as Ivan the Terrible, but in later years the kopek was more common. During the 1598-1613 succession crisis known as the Time of Troubles, kopek weights varied greatly due to fiscal and political concerns, starting the 15-year period at 0.64 grams and ending it at a mere 0.49. The crisis ended after the Second People's Militia set up a provisional government in Yaroslavl and eventually retook Moscow from the occupying Poles. The 2013 unveiling of a Yaroslavl memorial in the form of a giant Yaroslavl 1612 kopek (video here), indicates the kopek's significance in this history: Goods and labor supporting the uprising were paid for with these coins, identical in weight to those of the occupying Poles. Such coins are now among the rarer of varieties. The specifically depicted kopek, having catalog (KG) number 304, bears the name of the last ruler before the Time of Troubles, who died over 14 years before its production. In early 1613, his name was replaced with that of Tsar Michael, the first of the Romanov Tsars.

Half a century after the Time of Troubles, Michael's son, Tsar Alexis, replaced the silver coins, by then down to 0.46 grams, with copper ones. This led to rapid inflation, counterfeiting, and, after eight years of copper, the Copper Riot, a violently crushed uprising.


Copper Riot (Ernest Lissner, 1938)
Copper Riot (Ernest Lissner, 1938, image from Wikipedia in public domain)

As a result, wire coins were once again struck from silver. Alexis' son, Peter I – Peter the Great – further shrank silver kopeks from 0.39 grams to 0.28, then gradually phased them out all together, ending production in 1717. The phrase-out period of almost two decades saved Peter from having to face another coin-related uprising. Due to the small weight, these later kopeks take up only a fraction of the surface area of the die used to make them. On some, all you can make out is, "Pyotr," even when the corresponding die reads "Tsar and Grand Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich of all Russia." The below kopek lacks the rider's crown, the horse's head, and the date (1702). More on this below.

The smaller kopek of Peter the Great, obverse (photo and whole design)
Kopek of Peter the Great (photo) Kopek of Peter the Great (whole design)

Kopeks remained a unit of currency throughout Russian history, albeit redenominated multiple times in the 20th century. An explanatory side note: "Devaluation" is making money worth less, "debasement" is doing so by reducing precious metal content, and "redenomination" is replacing one valuation system with another. For example, Russia's currency today, the second Russian ruble, is worth 1,000 first Russian rubles. The second ruble's corresponding kopek has an updated version of the rider with spear.


Design used on the latest Russian kopek
2007 kopek

This design was used for all coins worth less than one ruble from 1997 until the end of minting of such coins in 2015. Its familiar design, no doubt chosen due to its similarity to that of the silver kopek, was, in fact, based on a 15th century painting. The retirement of the design was due to another crisis-driven devaluation, this crisis being the Russian financial crisis of 2014, which relates to the subject of this site's homepage.

The Russian Federation's kopek is, as of late 2024, worth about 1/100 of an American cent, even though – using redenomination as a guide – it is equivalent to 100,000,000,000 century-old kopeks from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). This equals a modern devaluation rate of around 30% per year; in post-Soviet times, devaluation has averaged even higher, in the high 30s. By contrast, debasement from Ivan IV to Peter the Great averaged only about 0.5% per year, yet was still evident due to the shrinking size of the kopek.

Digression: The "coinless period"

Ovruch slate spindle whorls, used for trade during the coinless period
Ovruch slate spindle whorls, used for trade during the coinless period

† For those wanting to learn more, this page has information about the creation of the aforementioned Bank of Russian virtual museum, while this 1986 Harvard University article has information about the economy of the pre-Mongol "coinless period."

There is much uncertainty over:

Assertions and interpretations regarding these are often politicized: Linked here is a (Russian-language) claim that the designation of a "coinless period" is an anti-Russian "conspiracy in historical science" intended to make "ancient Russia" seem backward and powerless. Others claim that the common explanation of the period as being caused by internal fragmentation and isolation is a pro-Russian myth furthering the idea that external forces can never bring down a "Russian" state, only internal ones. Some people even claim that wire coins in Slavic lands predated the Tatar Mongols rather than being introduced by them. Even if true, however, it was the Tatar Mongols who popularized them — and the use of such coins over other items of trade.

Identification

Identification diagram for some Ivan IV kopeks, via http://www.learn-your-history.in.ua
The leftmost kopek is the exception to the rule that only dengas have a rider with a saber.
Identification diagram for some Ivan IV kopeks

Identifying a coin, especially from just part of its design, is part of the challenge of collecting these coins. Since most literature is unavailable in the Anglophone world and most websites are in Russian, it's hard to figure out how to do so if you don't know where to look. In addition, non-Russian speakers will need a translator like that in Chrome or Safari, and a guide to the Russian alphabet like Wikipedia. I advise the use of these Russian- and English-language resources:

  1. The website http://www.learn-your-history.in.ua is that of a Ukrainian coin dealer who, unfortunately, does not ship internationally. However, collectors outside of Ukraine can take advantage of the site's identification charts (archived here) in order to identify ruler, obverse, and reverse. These charts cover years 1533 to 1704, and thus most, but not all, Russian wire coins. A portion of one chart is shown above. They are separated by ruler, mint, and denomination. Coin text and weight are the best way to determine these; just be aware that wear and clipping mean that specimens often weigh significantly less than when originally minted.
  2. Either way, the next stop is Russian coin, which I've mirrored here due to certificate problems with the original. The site covers 1420 to 1717, and is essential for determining the catalog number of your coin. Its illustrations of the coins' designs will also help you to distinguish what's on your coin more clearly. Be forewarned, however, that, although its catalog numbers are correct, some of the numbers identifying designs on each side of coins may differ from other sources. You may needed to go by picture rather than number.
  3. Dzmitry Hulecki's 48-page English-language Russian Wire Coins 1533-1645 is a useful book on the subject, with information on dates, weights, pricing, example pieces, and historical background. However, it is an optional reference, neither necessary nor sufficient for full identification. That's fortunate, since searches on eBay, Amazon, and a worldwide library database only yield one copy — at a limited-access Stanford library storage facility. As such, I've linked its most useful page, a weight-related chart, here. (The chart doesn't include the solo reign of Peter the Great, during which kopek weight was reduced to 0.28 grams.)
Identification resources by years covered; see above for details.
Long reigns are pink, while succession conflicts are red.
. 1400s. 1500s. 1600s. 1700s.
< Mongol period Russian Tsardom Empire >
  Ivan III Ivan IV   Peter I
1 1533 → Identification charts (Russian) ← 1704
2 1420 → Russian coin
(Russian)		 ← 1717
3 1533 → Russian Wire Coins (English) ← 1645
↓ 1533 → Catalog of Medieval Coins of Russia (bilingual) ← 1717

Dates and mintmarks

Click here for details.

Other identifying characteristics

Kopek of Michael — KG#338 (1614), mintmark "МОСКВА" (Moscow)
Holder window is about the size of a U.S. cent or euro 2-cent piece
Kopek of Michael (KG#338, year 1614)

Dates and/or mintmarks, if present, are the most reliable way to narrow the range of possible matches. Another is weight, although the manual fabrication and fragility of the coin to wear or fracture means that this is only somewhat helpful. The obverse, the side with the horse, could narrow things down as well, but although it's generally easier to use the text on the reverse. This may include the ruler name and/or title, or, failing that, at least distinguishing text style and placement.

Purchase

"Tsar and Grand Prince Michael" kopek from the cover of Russian Wire Coins
Tsar and Grand Prince Michael kopek from Hulecki's book cover

I've never seen a wire coin in an American coin show or coin shop, so your best bet is looking online, generally on eBay. The market for these coins, as you can imagine, is the largest in the lands through which they once circulated. For example, take Ukrainian interest: The Cossack Hetmanate, based in the heart of modern-day Ukraine, pledged allegiance to Moscow in early 1654 during an anti-Polish rebellion. This led to war between Russia and Poland, funds for which were raised by the issuance of copper wire kopeks. These copper pieces were issued from 1654 until the Copper Riot brought back silver.

When shopping online, be aware that different listings may use completely different words and phrases to refer to the coins: "Moscow," "Russia," "wire," "silver," "kopek," "denga." Trying various combinations may be necessary to find what you want. If the coin being sold is fully identified, that will save the need for going through the identification process. A starting collector wanting to go through this process, however, might want to look for lots of several coins. Check photos to be sure you're getting the variety you expect, though; one lot I obtained, shown at the top of this page, turned out to all be from one Tsar (Michael).

Other resources

The standard guide for wire coins from Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great is Kleshchinov and Grishin's four-volume Catalog of Medieval Coins of Russia. Its "KG" catalog numbers are most the widely used system for denoting coin varieties, and, unlike most online resources, it includes the wire coins of the copper period (1655 to 1663). Its books have some readable English text along with their native Russian, but each book can be expensive and hard to find. The dealer at http://www.learn-your-history.in.ua sells inexpensive reprints if you have a Ukrainian address to ship to; pirated electronic versions exist as well. But the above online resources should be sufficient.

(Regarding the guide's title, "Medieval" is a relative term here, a legacy of the Soviet adoption of the French "long Middle Ages" theory. This theory held that, due to its greater impact on the people, the Enlightenment, not the Renaissance, ended the Middle Ages.)

NOTE: I am including flags indicating the national origin of the online material below, just in case one country or another has connection problems related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Remember that there's always archive.org.

🇬🇧 English-language websites 🇬🇧

🇷🇺 Russian-language websites 🇷🇺

🇷🇺 More Russian books 🇷🇺

The last resource above is the best one for books, since many are given as text and thus easily translatable. Readers capable of reading Russian may also appreciate the following:

🇬🇧 English-language historical resources 🇬🇧

Wire coins from the Reddit link
Wire coins from the Reddit link
Index of this page
Introduction
History
Identification
Purchase
Other resources
Related
Kyiv 2014