Any ideas please

Tiny little silver coin

 

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Russian wire money. I believe the period was late 1500's to early 1600's. Sorry can't tell you which czar it is.

 

I'm not sure if any other czars issued them but here is my wire kopek of Ivan the Terrible.I've read that he actually hated them and called for "those little bugs" to be recalled and melted down.

 

:bow: :bow: :high5: :kewl: :thumb: :hail: Kiss :smile I think it's pretty cool!!!

Bone

 

How would you like to have been the poor schmuck who minted ugly coins for Ivan? :hatch:

 

Probably terrible!

 

The coin on the top is a kopek of Peter the Great, it is dated 1701.
check more wire money here: http://kopek.ws/cgi-bin/topcoin?f=2

 

Cool Sema,thanks for the link.Can you tell the date on mine? You must speak and read Russian.

 

Czar Mikhail I (or 'Michael' in English) (ruled 1613-45) issued wire
Kopecks.They are nice little hammered coins.They depict the Czar mounted on horseback on the obverse & the title of the Czar is inscribed on the reverse.I have got one of these coins.

Aidan.

 

to Mikjo0: the information on your holder is correct, but Ivan-the-Terrible's Denga=1/2Kopek type did not bear dates on it.

to Aidan Work: this was a standard design for wire kopeks from early 1500s (Ivan 4 the Terrible) to early 1700s (Peter 1 the Great) - a horse rider with a spear on the obverse and the ruller's title on the reverse.
half kopeks had horsemen with swords instead.

fyi, the word "KOPEK" origins from the word "KOPJE" which in Russian means SPEAR

 

Why are they called "wire" coins?

 

Simply because coins were struck on silver wires!!! Primitive but that's how it worked in the past. These were then cut up and hence the term "wire" coins.

 

It is very easy to keep the standard weight by cutting the pieces of the same length from silver wire of fixed diameter