Museum complex

A rouble

Moscow. The New English money court
1654
Silver
Diameter 44 mm
Acquisition: from old acquisitions
Showcase 8

A rarest Russian coin – a rouble of 1654 or “an efimok rouble” – is the first type of rouble coins calked in Russia. On its front – a riding tzar with a scepter upon his shoulder, round him an inscription says “BY GOD’SGRACE THE GREAT SOVEREIGN TZAR AND GRAND PRINCE ALEXEY MIHAILOVICH OF ALL GREAT AND LITTLE RUSSIA”. On the reverse side – an eagle with decorations around, a Cyrillic date “YEAR 1654” and an inscription “ROUBLE”.
During the rule of tzar Alexei Mikhailovich in the mid-17th century an attempt to reform an archaic monetary system of 16th–17th centuries was made. Monetary reform was focused on changing the counting nominals by real coins in copper, and since 1654 – in silver. Thus first “roubles” were the recoined thalers (in Russian – “efimok”).

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Such an actual and necessary reform alas was blighted by importune exchange of old and new coins. It turned out to be, that new coins were lighter and worse of quality than the old ones. In 1654 Russia started a war with Poland, in 1656 – with Sweden, so budget gap became catastrophic. Technical complexity and unpopularity of new coins forced the government to stop the production of them. At the start they tried to remove it by another coin - “efimok with a sign”, which were just thalers with Russian stamp and date on them, but soon it was removed and big nominals in silver were taken away from the trade. They were replaced by copper “roubles” of the same weight, thus it was 60 times cheaper. However, taxes were taken in silver coins and the salary was distributed in copper ones. So that trick led to depreciation of money, great social instability and market collapse. In 1663 this reform was aborted. An attempt to modernize Russian monetary system ended in a complete disorder in money circulation in Russia.

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