gxseries Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 Since Alexander I, silver coins of 5 kopecks were minted regularly till the end of Nicholai II (or way back in 1757). Funny enough, with the big size of 5 kopecks compared to the awfully small size of the silver one, I don't really like their extreme size differences. Which was more popular over time? I find both denominations quite uncommon to find, making it difficult to study and hence my question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 The sheer numbers of silver vs. copper suggests to me that the silver was much more popular. In fact during the reign of Nikolai II 1911 was the only year in which a decent number of the copper examples were minted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCO Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 The sheer numbers of silver vs. copper suggests to me that the silver was much more popular. In fact during the reign of Nikolai II 1911 was the only year in which a decent number of the copper examples were minted. In second half of 18-th century copper coins were widely circulated and were minted in large quantities. Many hoards of that time have large amounts of copper 5 Kopeck pieces. So we can say that copper 5 Kopeck coins were quite "popular" at that time. In 19-th century both copper and silver 5 Kopecks were circulating. Not always 5 Kopecks in copper was the same value as 5 Kopecks in silver though. Therefore, comparison of their "popularity" is not always correct since they represented often different value. WCO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisenish Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 Since Alexander I, silver coins of 5 kopecks were minted regularly till the end of Nicholai II (or way back in 1757). Funny enough, with the big size of 5 kopecks compared to the awfully small size of the silver one, I don't really like their extreme size differences. Which was more popular over time? I find both denominations quite uncommon to find, making it difficult to study and hence my question. The question is not really correct, because silver and copper 5 kopek coins were not always struck at the same time. The only periods of simultaneous mintage were 1830-1839 and 1849-1912. Now, coppers 1830-1840 are to find easier than silver coins of the period, but it's difficult to judge about the popularity in the past. Such a difference in size was due to the different metal prices. In the Russian Empire, value on the coin corresponded to value of the metal in this coin. Thus, e.g. in 1830, if you compare weights of silver (1,04g) and copper (22,8g) 5 kopek pieces, you see that copper cost 22 times less compared with silver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banivechi Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 As I know, silver was ever more popular than copper. Even the taxes were paid in a strictly limited percentage of copper coins. Silver, gold and paper money were preferred overall in transactions. The same situation was in Europe too. Despite to our image about the correct intrinsic value, even the silver coins were overevaluated. The face value was in 99% cases slightly superior to metal value - maybe the weight was right, but the title was wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted December 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 Kisenish, that was my dilemna. They seemed to be struck at slightly different times. Were silver coins struck when there were not enough copper or visa versa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted December 6, 2006 Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 During the reign of Nikolai II I believe the 5 Kopeks were struck in bronze only in 1911, the previous date was 1881. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCO Posted December 6, 2006 Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 During the reign of Nikolai II I believe the 5 Kopeks were struck in bronze only in 1911, the previous date was 1881. Copper 5 Kopeck coins during Nicholas II era were struck 1911, 1912 and 1916. (I am not counting rare 1917 Copper). WCO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisenish Posted December 6, 2006 Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 Kisenish, that was my dilemna. They seemed to be struck at slightly different times. Were silver coins struck when there were not enough copper or visa versa? I don't think so. Except for the two periods I mentioned, they struck either copper 5 kopeks or silver 5 kopeks. But when they struck only silver 5 kopek pieces (e.g. 1840), they struck also all copper denominations from 1/4 to 3 kopeks. These coppers were struck in large quantities and are not scarce, suggesting that there was enough copper at that time. Only this particular denomination - 5 kopek - was not struck in copper to avoid redundance. Vise versa - when no silver 5 kopeks were struck, higher denominations were still minted. I think they always tried to avoid redundance. How these decisions were made - to struck in silver like higher denominations or in copper like lower denominations is now difficult to say. Greetings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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