W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

Descriptive Outline of the Coinages of Europe 359
at the Moscow mint a pattern rouble of an entirely new
design and module, with the date in Arabic numerals, a plain
edge, and the value expressed ; and it is curious that Charles
XII. of Sweden issued a daler the same year of very
superior style.
Which was the anterior we do not learn ;
but of the Russian experiment no immediate fruit came.
We have to wait till
1717 for a revival of the feeling, when
a rouble of somewhat larger module, with the date as well as
the legend in Russian characters, was published. The
climax was reached in 1723, to which belongs the issue of
a rouble of smaller dimensions with the date in Arabic
numerals, the Czar's initials in the angles of a cross (substituted
for the double-headed eagle of 1 707 and 1717), and an
inscribed edge ;
this was accompanied by that of pieces in
gold of three and six roubles, having on obverse the portrait
and on reverse the altogether novel St. Andrew type.
Already Peter had struck a curious gold coin, if not a
medalet, in remembrance of his father and mother, and we
have spoken of two other cases where gold was employed ;
but the grand-dukes of Kiev appear to have had none, that
which has been offered as such being more than questionable
;
and the coinage of 1723 may perhaps be viewed as
the earliest regular currency in that metal. From the
numerous very interesting patterns which have come down to
us, and a few of which we reproduce,
it is evident that the Czar
meditated a farther development of his monetary system,
which was now on an immeasurably better and more honourable
footing ;
and his example furnished a precedent and
beginning which, as in other matters, his successors did not
neglect to utilise. The coinage of 1723 was the model with
certain variations and improvements
for several subsequent
reigns. All the money emanated till 1724 from one of the
mints at Moscow, which had replaced Kiev, Novgorod, and the
other ancient seats of coinage, and was in its turn largely
superseded by St. Petersburgh. Later czars or emperors did
their part toward the achievement of the aim which the
real founder of their monarchy had had in his mind, and
Catherine I., Peter II., and Catherine II. more especially,