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Message:: [QUOTE="John Conduitt, post: 6642979, member: 109923"]Perhaps it was to do with the weight. As others have said, in more modern times there were similarly huge copper coins because people were used to silver being worth face value, but the authorities wanted to switch to copper (for various reasons, sometimes honourable, sometimes not). In Georgian Britain, they needed to mint copper coins due to a severe shortage of small change. Silver was in short supply and in any case low denominations made of silver were very small. It was believed the face value of a coin should correspond to the value of the material it was made from, so each tuppence coin was made from two pence worth of copper (2 ounces). George III 'Cartwheel' Twopence, 1797[ATTACH=full]1268095[/ATTACH]Birmingham. Copper, 41mm, 56.89g (S 3776). In Russia in the 1650s, tsar Alexis I began minting large numbers of copper kopeks to increase government revenue and help fund his wars. Since the value of the copper kopek was artificially equated to the value of the silver kopek, this led to a devaluation of the ruble and a severe financial crisis. There were riots. Alexis I Kopek, 1654-1663[ATTACH=full]1268101[/ATTACH]Moscow. Copper, 14x7mm, 0.56g (KG 1103). Unsurprisingly, Peter I's copper coins were larger - his 5 kopeks in 1725 was 19.8g. Peter I the Great 5 Kopeks, 1725[ATTACH=full]1268103[/ATTACH]Kadashevsky Mint, Moscow. Copper, 19.8g (KM 165). By the time of Elizabeth, they were double the size. Elizabeth 5 Kopeks, 1759[ATTACH=full]1268098[/ATTACH]Ekatarinburg. Copper, 41mm, 53.54g (Bit 439).[/QUOTE]

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