borispriva
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2012
- Messages
- 518
Prepare yourself – it is a lot of reading. 
All coins and relics I’m going to show in this final part were found in the fall of 2013 on the former site of big Siberian village.
Here I am in the crop field at the place where village once stood from 1690s till 1920s.
The soil was almost black over there, but here and there you can see the traces of cultural layers and – since the village survived into XX century - a lot of pieces of shattered bricks.
The village houses were all built from the pine logs, but at the brink of the XX century Siberians started to use bricks to build home heating and cooking ovens.
*****
My oldest copper coin from that day – 1748 Russian denga - was minted almost 20 years before the first Siberian coins were minted. It was during the rein of Elizabeth of Russia (Elizaveta Petrovna – 1741-1761).
Here is the portrait of the Empress.
The coin has two headed Russian eagle on obverse and look at the quality of this copper – it still has some color in it after almost 270 years underground.
The reverse has distinctive signs of the “cooper disease”, but the date and denomination is clearly readable.
Here is the one similar to mine on Italian EBay – priced at 90 Euro (about $100)
http://www.ebay.it/itm/Russia-Russland-Denga-1731-/350876612534?hash=item51b1e037b6
*****
Another big coin – Ringed Two Kopeck – was minted in 1810.
Here is how it looked fresh from the ground.
They call it “Ringed” because of the distinctive ring which is the part of the coin design both on obverse and reverse.
It’s really beautiful and very heavy coin the size of half-dollar.
Next denomination - five kopeck - is even bigger: it is the size of the Morgan dollar (unfortunately I never dug one)
.
This coin is in pretty good shape and has double headed eagle and date on the reverse.
It was minted during the rein of Czar Alexander I (1801-1825).
*****
And next – the most unusual Russian silver coin I ever found.
Here we go – let me to introduce to you the Russian Cheshuika (fish scale) that was hammered somewhere between 1696 and 1718.
I found four of them – three (the smaller once) were minted from 1696 till 1718 during the rein of Peter I The Great, the bigger one is from the much earlier period – it was hammered during the rein of Ivan IV The Terrible (1547-1584).
Most likely in the 1580s, right before Russia started to colonize Siberia.
It was quite a challenge to figure out the period and the name of the czar – as you can see the coin was kind of damaged, but if you compare it with Ivan The Terrible fish scale in a good condition (like the one below), you can see that they look pretty much the same.
*****
Those fish scales deserved a special chapter – first of all they are the first real Russian coins and were hammered way before Russia became a country, starting from the beginning of XV century.
They were minted from silver imported from Europe, from the thin silver wire to be exact. That wire was cut into small pieces (all of them the same weight) and then fish scales were hammered. Since it was done by hand and dies were bigger than silver pieces every coin looks different and every coin is unique.
The shortage of this European silver in XVII century became one of the reasons for Russians to start seriously considering the use of copper coinage. The copper was readily available inside of the country.
The fish scales were so small that people usually kept them inside of their mouths, against the cheek, especially when on the road, to avoid the robbery. And they spit them out when they need to pay for something.
Because of the size they also were not that convenient as a payment form – when ancient Russians made a big purchase it took sometimes two to three days just to do the count.
Another funny fact - silver was very expensive at that time: much more expensive than now. Russians paid 10 ounces of silver for the one ounce of gold – you do the math.
The coin was considered an official payment unit till you can see the czar name which usually was in the middle of coin on the reverse. So those street smart Russians started cutting the silver from the edges of the fish scales and keep it for themselves.
All three Peter The Great fish scales on the picture below are seriously reduced in size compare to the Ivan The Terrible fish scale.
All these finally brought first Russian coinage reform to life in the beginning of XVIII century, when Russia dropped “cheshuika” coins altogether and adopted European coinage system.
Another important detail – these fish scales gave the name to the modern smallest Russian coin – kopeck.
Starting from the end of XVII century all of them (like the one on this picture) had an image of the horseman armed with the spear on the obverse.
Russians at that time pronounced “Spear” like “Kopeiko”, and that is how the word “kopeck” was born. It’s actually sounds exactly the same way in modern Russian – “Kopeika”.
*****
And finally – couple of relics: part of XVIII century copper horse harness ornament and heavy metal button for special occasion clothing. Siberians call it “weight button”.
All right – we are all done with Russian history lessons until my next trip to Siberia.
Thanks for your time and HH everybody.
All coins and relics I’m going to show in this final part were found in the fall of 2013 on the former site of big Siberian village.
Here I am in the crop field at the place where village once stood from 1690s till 1920s.
The soil was almost black over there, but here and there you can see the traces of cultural layers and – since the village survived into XX century - a lot of pieces of shattered bricks.
The village houses were all built from the pine logs, but at the brink of the XX century Siberians started to use bricks to build home heating and cooking ovens.
*****
My oldest copper coin from that day – 1748 Russian denga - was minted almost 20 years before the first Siberian coins were minted. It was during the rein of Elizabeth of Russia (Elizaveta Petrovna – 1741-1761).
Here is the portrait of the Empress.
The coin has two headed Russian eagle on obverse and look at the quality of this copper – it still has some color in it after almost 270 years underground.
The reverse has distinctive signs of the “cooper disease”, but the date and denomination is clearly readable.
Here is the one similar to mine on Italian EBay – priced at 90 Euro (about $100)
http://www.ebay.it/itm/Russia-Russland-Denga-1731-/350876612534?hash=item51b1e037b6
*****
Another big coin – Ringed Two Kopeck – was minted in 1810.
Here is how it looked fresh from the ground.
They call it “Ringed” because of the distinctive ring which is the part of the coin design both on obverse and reverse.
It’s really beautiful and very heavy coin the size of half-dollar.
Next denomination - five kopeck - is even bigger: it is the size of the Morgan dollar (unfortunately I never dug one)
.This coin is in pretty good shape and has double headed eagle and date on the reverse.
It was minted during the rein of Czar Alexander I (1801-1825).
*****
And next – the most unusual Russian silver coin I ever found.
Here we go – let me to introduce to you the Russian Cheshuika (fish scale) that was hammered somewhere between 1696 and 1718.
I found four of them – three (the smaller once) were minted from 1696 till 1718 during the rein of Peter I The Great, the bigger one is from the much earlier period – it was hammered during the rein of Ivan IV The Terrible (1547-1584).
Most likely in the 1580s, right before Russia started to colonize Siberia.
It was quite a challenge to figure out the period and the name of the czar – as you can see the coin was kind of damaged, but if you compare it with Ivan The Terrible fish scale in a good condition (like the one below), you can see that they look pretty much the same.
*****
Those fish scales deserved a special chapter – first of all they are the first real Russian coins and were hammered way before Russia became a country, starting from the beginning of XV century.
They were minted from silver imported from Europe, from the thin silver wire to be exact. That wire was cut into small pieces (all of them the same weight) and then fish scales were hammered. Since it was done by hand and dies were bigger than silver pieces every coin looks different and every coin is unique.
The shortage of this European silver in XVII century became one of the reasons for Russians to start seriously considering the use of copper coinage. The copper was readily available inside of the country.
The fish scales were so small that people usually kept them inside of their mouths, against the cheek, especially when on the road, to avoid the robbery. And they spit them out when they need to pay for something.
Because of the size they also were not that convenient as a payment form – when ancient Russians made a big purchase it took sometimes two to three days just to do the count.
Another funny fact - silver was very expensive at that time: much more expensive than now. Russians paid 10 ounces of silver for the one ounce of gold – you do the math.
The coin was considered an official payment unit till you can see the czar name which usually was in the middle of coin on the reverse. So those street smart Russians started cutting the silver from the edges of the fish scales and keep it for themselves.
All three Peter The Great fish scales on the picture below are seriously reduced in size compare to the Ivan The Terrible fish scale.
All these finally brought first Russian coinage reform to life in the beginning of XVIII century, when Russia dropped “cheshuika” coins altogether and adopted European coinage system.
Another important detail – these fish scales gave the name to the modern smallest Russian coin – kopeck.
Starting from the end of XVII century all of them (like the one on this picture) had an image of the horseman armed with the spear on the obverse.
Russians at that time pronounced “Spear” like “Kopeiko”, and that is how the word “kopeck” was born. It’s actually sounds exactly the same way in modern Russian – “Kopeika”.
*****
And finally – couple of relics: part of XVIII century copper horse harness ornament and heavy metal button for special occasion clothing. Siberians call it “weight button”.
All right – we are all done with Russian history lessons until my next trip to Siberia.
Thanks for your time and HH everybody.
) I have two older Russian coins - this "cheshuika" of Peter the Great (we call them "łezka" - literally "a small tear") and dienga of Ivan the Terrible. Please keep us updated and good luck!
