Peter I the Great of Russia
Born 1672 A.D.,  Tzar, 1682-1725 A.D.

Silver Kopeck, 0.23 grams, 12 mm in longest dimension.
O:  Tzar on horseback, holding spear
R:  Inscription.
At the beginning of Peter's reign, the Russian mint did not have the technology to produce large coins, and these small crude poorly-made kopeks represented the bulk of the coins produced.


Silver Ruble (100 Kopecks), 28.8 grams, 40 mm.
Peter undertook a reform of the mint and the coinage, and created a decimal coinage system in European style.

Peter I, known as Peter the Great, was an unusually powerful and prepossessing ruler;  his military achievements and westernizing reforms of the Russian government, army, and society laid the foundation of the modern Russian state.  In 1697-98 he traveled to Europe -- the first journey of its kind for a Russian ruler -- to examine the latest technical advances and to recruit engineering and military experts for his service.  In 1700, he joined a European alliance that initiated the Great Northern War (1700-21) against Sweden.   The war gave Russia its new Baltic coastline and proclaimed Peter as emperor of all the Russias.   The emperor's heavy emphasis on military and technical development also accelerated the commercial life of Russia, especially through its new Baltic ports, and hastened the growth of manufacturing through state-created and -supervised companies.  Peter's desire to strengthen Russia also speeded the trend toward the secularization and modernization of culture.   Peter built a new city and capital, St. Petersburg, on the Baltic lands taken from Sweden


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