How To Identify and Interpret Cyrillic Dates on Russian Coins of Peter I The Great
"Titlo" Sign and "Thousands" Mark in Cyrillic Numeral Dates on Silver and Copper Coins, p2
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For the first time, the "titlo" sign appeared on reverses of silver wire dengas in the early 16th century. To indicate the title (hence the term "titlo") of supreme authority, it was placed above the grammatically contracted words such as "ЦРЬ" ("tsar", "tzar", "czar", and "csar"), "KHS" and "КНSЬ" ("duke" or "prince"), in which vowels were omitted. This custom had been maintained until the end of the wire money production in 1717.
Titlo Sign on Reverse of 1547 1 Denga of Ivan IV The Terrible
Copper and round silver coins of Peter The Great bear another characteristic sign - a "thousands" sign (an inclined line crossed by two short lines), which is located in front of the corresponding letter in a date, and indicates this letter as a number of thousands in a date as shown on a picture below.
Examples of A "Thousands" Sign on Reverses of Copper Coins
Sometimes, due to carelessness of mint engravers, the titlo sign was not placed on the obverse coin design, so some wire kopecks bear numeral dates without "titlo". For the same reason, some copper coins may not have the "thousand" sign which, by the way, never appears on silver hammered coins.
Examples of Silver Wire Kopek's Obverses Showing Numeral Dates without Titlo
Reverse of Copper 1710 1 Kopek, Peter I, Showing Numeral Date without Titlo
The titlo sign also appear above dates on some copper and "new" silver coins.
Examples of Numeral Dates with Titlo Sign on Silver and Copper Coins
Attention should be paid to numerals containing letters "N" and "И" as they are interchanged sometimes.
YEARS OF MINTAGE OF PETER'S COINS THAT BEAR CYRILLIC NUMERAL DATES
SILVER COINS: Hammered Wire Kopecks - 1696-1717
Kopeck (round) - 1713-1718 (some kopecks of this period bear Arabic numerals)
Altyn (1 Altyn = 3 Kopecks) - 1704-1718 (some altyns of this period bear Arabic numerals)
10 Dengas (10 Dengas = 5 Kopecks) - 1701-1704 (some 10-denga coins of this period bear Arabic numerals)
Grivennik (1 Grivennik = 10 Kopecks) - 1701-1720 (some grivenniks of this period bear Arabic numerals)
Polupoltinnik (1 Polupoltinnik = 1/2 Poltina = 25 Kopecks) - 1701-1713
Poltina (1 Poltina = 50 Kopecks = 1/2 Rouble) - 1701-1722 (some poltinas of 1707, 1710 and 1722 bear Arabic numerals)
Rouble (1 Rouble = 2 Poltinas = 100 Kopecks) - 1704-1721 (some rubles of 1707 and 1710 bear Arabic numerals)
Tinf (1 Tinf = 12 Kopecks, occupation of Poland) - 1704-1709
Shestak (also Szostak in Polish, occupation of Poland, 1 Shestak = 1/3 Tinf = 4 Kopecks) - 1707
COPPER COINS:
Polupolushka (1 Polupolushka = 1/2 Polushka = 1/4 Denga) - 1700
Polushka (1 Polushka = 1/2 Denga = 1/4 Kopek) - 1700-1721 (Arabic numerals appear on some polushkas minted between 1718 and 1721)
Denga (1 Denga = 1/2 Kopek) - 1700-1718 (some dengas of 1718 bear Arabic numeral)
Kopeck (1 Kopek = 2 Dengas = 4 Polushkas = 1/100 Ruble) - 1704-1718
GOLD COINS:
Chervonets (also Dukat, equals 2.3 Rubles) - 1701-1707
Dvoinoi Chervonets (also 2 Dukats, equals 4.6 Rubles) - 1701-1702
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