Types / 1915
5 Kopecks, Russian Empire, 1915
Казначейскій разменный знакъ — 5 копѣекъ
very common
What was happening
A postage-stamp design pressed into service as coin. From 1915 the Treasury printed the small denominations on card, using the plates cut for the Romanov tercentenary stamps, and told the public plainly what they were: these circulate on a par with copper coin.
Metal had vanished from circulation almost as soon as the war began - hoarded for its intrinsic value the moment the currency looked shaky. These are the first visible step of the imperial monetary collapse: not inflation yet, just the quiet disappearance of anything worth melting.
