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Posted 04/19/2012 08:08 am
Correct. It's a Russian "Beard Tax token".
Backstory: Tsar Peter the Great (reigned 1682-1725) was a reformer, and wished to make his country "modern" and "European". The problem was, beards were traditional in Russia at the time, while they had gone out of fashion in Europe. So in 1705, Tsar Peter passed laws prohibiting beards.
There were exemptions: Orthodox priests, for example, believed beards were an essential part of their "uniform" and so were granted an exemption. But any ordinary citizen, be they serf or nobleman, who wished to continue to sport a beard, had to pay for the privilege. The tokens were issued as a kind of receipt, which had to be presented on demand if a soldier stopped you in the street and demanded proof you had paid the beard tax.
The tax rates were different for serfs (1 kopek) and nobles (100 kopeks), and the tokens were different, too: serf tokens were bronze, noble tokens were silver. I have seen genuine examples of both, displayed on "Odd and Curious night" at my local coin club meeting. This brief Wikipedia article shows a silver version; here's an old CCF thread with a copper one.
January1may brings up an important point: these uniquely Russian tokens are very popular with collectors in Russia and have been widely replicated.
Backstory: Tsar Peter the Great (reigned 1682-1725) was a reformer, and wished to make his country "modern" and "European". The problem was, beards were traditional in Russia at the time, while they had gone out of fashion in Europe. So in 1705, Tsar Peter passed laws prohibiting beards.
There were exemptions: Orthodox priests, for example, believed beards were an essential part of their "uniform" and so were granted an exemption. But any ordinary citizen, be they serf or nobleman, who wished to continue to sport a beard, had to pay for the privilege. The tokens were issued as a kind of receipt, which had to be presented on demand if a soldier stopped you in the street and demanded proof you had paid the beard tax.
The tax rates were different for serfs (1 kopek) and nobles (100 kopeks), and the tokens were different, too: serf tokens were bronze, noble tokens were silver. I have seen genuine examples of both, displayed on "Odd and Curious night" at my local coin club meeting. This brief Wikipedia article shows a silver version; here's an old CCF thread with a copper one.
January1may brings up an important point: these uniquely Russian tokens are very popular with collectors in Russia and have been widely replicated.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
foil is spelled correct
