Wire Money of Russia was produced as early as the 14th century and issuance continued into the beginning of the 18th century. It was issued in both denga and kopek denominations, depending on the time period when a particular coin was issued.
The coins were struck by taking a piece of silver wire, cutting it to the proper weight, then smashing it between a pair of dies by strong-armed Russians. The coins are usually struck partly off center. Many examples show a horseman on one side and legends on the other. Detailed English language information on them is scarce and much of the information is in Russian
By the time of the 13th century Mongol invasion, lands that would eventually become Russia were fragmented and isolated. This fragmentation and isolation brought about a coinless period lasting two centuries. Standard tools of barter, like beads and squirrel furs, took the place of coins. Large amounts were stored in precious metal bars, known as ''grivna''. Silver grivna weights were eventually standardized within each principality. ''Kyivian'' were about 150 gm and Novogord were 204 gm, about equal in value to 500 squirrel pelts. A modified version of the word ''grivna'' is, today the unit of currency of Ukraine, the hryvnia.
The Tatar Mongol overlords of the Golden Horde minted coins by taking silver wire, cutting it, and hammered it flat. Moscow under Dmitry of the Don in the 1360s, started to do the same. The wire was measured out in fractions of grivna, so coin weights were standardized. Even when, in the late 15th century, Dmirty's grandson, Ivan III, threw off the Tatar yoke and united the Russian lands into a single country, different places continued using different weights and designs.
Ivan III's grandson , Ivan IV, inherited the throne in 1533 at the age of three. Almost immediately, his mother and regent, Elena Glinskaya reformed currency. Coins weighing 0.68 gm were called ''kopeks''. Almost all these coins had text on one side and a horse and rider with a spear pointing towards the lower right on the other
A half kopek, closer to the weight of coins in Moscow, was called a ''denga'', the plural of which ''dengi'' remains to this day the Russian word for money. Ivan IV was later known as Ivan the Terrible.
Following the death of Ivan the Terrible in 1584, Russia fell into a period of chaos and civil war. In a effort to bring an end to the fighting, in 1613 the Council of All Russia elected the 16-year old Michael as Czar. Though many expected him to fail, the young Michael slowly established his control over Russia and wisely avoided involvement in the wars of Europe. By the time of his death in 1645 he had established the powerful Romanov dynasty. Wire money is crudely produced, and extremely small. The coins weigh between 0.17 to 0.70 gm during different periods and different rulers.
The market of these coins, is in the lands they were circulated. Identifying them especially from just part of its design is a challenge though. The standard guide for wire coins from Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great is ''Kleshchinov and Grishin's, four volume Catalogue of Medieval Coins of Russia''.
Great post, General sahab.
ReplyDeleteTimely, since Russia can't 'Wire money' with SWIFT. Clearly, other avenues exist.