Catherine the Great 5 Kopecks 1763-1796 (Steve Moulding)

Reading the 5 Kopecks
of Catherine the Great
1763-1796

These large copper coins have long been popular amongst both beginning and advanced coin collectors. Their size, age, and design are immediately appealing. In addition, the great number of different coins in the series, across many years and several mint marks, and the number of rarities, overstrikes, and overdates can keep the serious collector busy for years.

To the serious student of Russian Numismatics and Russian History these coins, even the more common ones, contain many stories and much information. Research still continues today and we are learning more and more. While the uninformed may casually dismiss Catherine's copper 5 kopecks as uninteresting beginner coins, we know better!

This article is aimed at the beginning collector/student of these coins.

Obverse

The first, and perhaps most obvious, feature of the obverse is the year in which the coin was minted (1794 in this case). This type of 5 Kopeck coin was minted during every year of Catherine the Great's reign and so one may see every date from 1763 to 1796.

The second thing we see is a fairly complicated design of interlocking letters: the 'monogram'. This design tells who was in power at the time. Each ruler had his or her own monogram. The monogram on the earlier 5 Kopecks of Elizabeth, for example, looks substantially different.

The pictures above show how to read Catherine the Great's monogram.

Reverse

The dominant feature of the reverse is, of course, the Imperial double eagle. The eagle heads look East and West across the vast empire, while the talons carry the scepter and the royal orb. The breast of the eagle shows the Emblem of Moscow: St. George killing the Dragon. This emblem, without the eagle, also appears on the lower denomination copper coins of Catherine (link)

Below the Eagle we are given two pieces of important information: the mint mark, and the denomination.

Mint Mark
The mint mark of the coin in the above picture is EM. This tells us that the coin was minted at the Ekaterinburg Mint in the Ural Mountains, one of the primary sources of Russia's copper. Ekaterinburg was an extremely important copper mint during the reign of Catherine. The "EM 5 Kopeck" coin can be found for every year from 1763-1796 and is the one most likely to be seen today. However there are several other possible mint marks that may seen on these coins. Starting with the most common (EM), the possible mint marks are (in approximate order):

EM	Ekaterinburg Mint - Ural Mountains	1763-1796
AM	Anninsk Mint - Close to Ekaterinburg	1789-1796
MM	Moscow Mint	1763-1768,1788,1789,1795
KM	Kolyvan Mint - Siberia	1781-1796
CPM	St. Petersburg Mint	1763-1767 & 1788
CM	Sestroretsk Mint - near St. Petersburg	1763-1767
TM	Tavrida Mint - Crimea. Very Rare	1787 &1788
none	Very Rare.	1763 & 1765

Denomination
Underneath the Eagle and Mint Mark the 5 Kopeck coin has a scroll containing the denomination. This is made up of two words and to read it we need a crash lesson in Russian

First Word
The first word has four characters. The first letter is our English P. In Cyrillic it looks like the Greek Pi, not surprising given the Greek roots of Cyrillic. The second letter looks like a reverse R. This is the Russian sound 'Ya' (no equivalent in English). The third letter is 'T' just like in English. The fourth letter looks like a small 'b' and is a sound modifier. We don't worry about it. Put all four letters together and you have PYaT, which is 'Five' in Russian

Second Word
The second word has 7 characters. The first and second are easy...'K' & 'O'. The next character we already know from the first word (PYaT). Its the same 'P'. So far we have 'KOP' (you can guess where this is going!). The fourth and fifth letters together are roughly pronounced 'yaay'. Another 'K' at letter six. Finally, at letter seven, is another character we don't worry about. Put it all together and you have KOP-yaay-K, which is Kopecks in Russian.

And Finally
Combining all the information from both sides of the coin we can now read that this is a Russian 5 Kopecks, minted at Ekaterinburg during the Reign of Empress Catherine II, in the year 1794. Have fun and practice reading some other 5 Kopeck coins!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this introduction to Catherine the Great's Five Kopeck coins, and that you found it useful. If you did (or didn't!), or if you have further questions or comments, please send me an email at smoulding(AT)earthlink.net

Steve Moulding 09/30/2001

Translation Project 2009

Can you speak any Russian? Would you like to help translate one of the great references of Russian Numismatics? If so, please visit the Grand Duke Corpus Translation project at http://grandduketranslation.pbwiki.com , It's simple to get involved and all are welcome! All work is done online. Contribute as much or as little as you want, whenever you want. Both translation and editing help are needed. This is a non-commercial project and all work is voluntary. Thanks!

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