I spent many days trying to attribute this coin, which only has written on its flip: "Small Medieval Coin, Serofili, Med. Coins". At first I thought Serofili was the denomination - nope, it is the name of a dealer at a place called Mediterranen Coins. Then I started to try to understand the script on the reverse - Latin? Greek? to make a long story short, it is Cyrillic. This is the coin: Ivan IV Vasiljevitch / Ivan the Terrible Grand Prince of Moscow and All Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. His reign saw the continued use and development of this unique coinage called Wire Money, small, thin silver coins minted during his reign as Tsar from 1547 to 1584. Their shape is usually irregular and oval, often long and narrow, the typical irregular “fish-scale” look, due to the minting technique. The Russian name for wire money is чешуйка, literally “scale”. The name kopek derives from the spear (kop'ye) that the rider wields. AR Kopek, Wire Money Russian Federation, Pskov, 1547 – 1584, during Ivan’s reign as Tsar 12 mm, 0.650 g Kleshchinov & Grishin 93; GKH 26; GKH2 31; Ob.: Ivan the Terrible wielding a spear on a galloping horse to right. The letters under the feet of Ivan, C/MH in Cyrillic script translate to S/MN (the mint master’s mark). Rev.: Cyrillic inscription: ЦРЬÏВЕ ЛИКИIКН ѦЗЬIВАНЪ ОСЕѦРОV СИI translates to “Tsar and Grand Prince Ivan of all Rus”. Please share your Wire Money or anything you like to share. Now, I think I'll be going to relax. This one was really a hard one!
Great job @cmezner ! Cool coin. I only have a few of these oddball coins… Wire Money IVAN THE TERRIBLE RUSSIA Ivan IV The Terrible 1533-1584 AR Denga Moscow mint Horseman riding right brandishing sword - Inscription in lines G&K 59 Rare type RUSSIA Ivan IV The Terrible 1533-1584 AR Kopek Wire money Novogorod mint 1535-1538 Horseman riding right brandishing sword - Inscription G&K 75 PETER THE GREAT Russia Peter the Great AR Kopek 1682-1725 Wire Money Obv: Horse Rider Rev: Great Tsar Peter 11.1mm 0.27g
Wonderful numismatic sleuthing! (And perseverance!) I have a lone kopek. It was also issued under Ivan IV the Terrible. I've seen the "ПС" attributed to two different mints: Novgorod and Pskov. Obv.: Crowned horseman with spear; mint mark "ПС" under galloping horse. Rev.: 5-line legend in old Cyrillic: "ЦРЬИ / КНSЬВ / ЕЛIКIIВ / AНЬВСЕ / IAРУСИ" Size: 10.8 X 14.2 mm. Weight: 0.66 grams. Attrib.: Kleschinov and Grishin 77
@Alegandron I think on your second coin, the Kopek of Ivan, the rider is brandisging a spear, not a sword.... just saying
Ivan “The Terrible” (1533 - 1584) AR Kopeck O: Tsar on horseback advancing right, thrusting spear downward. R: Legend in Cyrillic. Pskov mint 18mm .69g
I have had a number of these pass through my hands at some point. This one is also attributed to Ivan IV and I find to be very appealing in hand. It's the only one I have a photo of.
I WANT to get a wire piece. I've always loved the style and look of them. I have this coin from the state of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg. It was minted as a trade coin and VERY popular in the Baltic and Russia due to its similar appearance to wire money. These are larger though than most wire money at about 1 gram. I'll also say, these are NGC photos and this coin hails from the Bruun collection.
When I bought my example about 10 years ago it came identified as "Ivan IV", "Russian wire money", "kopek", and "Cyrillic legend". So I was fortunate to not need to discern which language it was. (But I do remember that it took me quite a bit of web surfing to lasso the precise catalog number.) However, I'm still uncertain whether ПС corresponds to Novgorod or Pskov. Can you verify which mint it was?
I found the description of mine here: https://www.holder-ok.ru/period/ivan-groznyy/kg-93 which is in Russian but it can be also viewed in English. Perhaps you can find your coin here. Your coin is also under Novgorod mint here: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces43465.html and there is a link to a Russian website courtesy of Ступинский поисковик (http://spsearch.ru) but the link doesn't work for me.
found it here: https://www.holder-ok.ru/period/ivan-groznyy/avers/33 and the mint is Novgorod: https://www.holder-ok.ru/period/ivan-groznyy/kg-77
What I think is strange is that the Cyrillic letters ПС correspond to PS which seems to abbreviate Pskov...
