2020-11-27
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2 kopecks in silver 1842
to Count Cancrin on his birthday - November 27, 1774
The inscription on the reverse of the copper coin- '2 kopecks in silver' - can be taken as an epigraph to the activities of the Russian Minister of Finance, who issued this coin in circulation.
Yegor frantzevich (Georg Ludwig) Kankrin (1823-1844), German by birth (Hanau) and by education (Giessen and Marburg universities), received the rank of General while serving in the Russian army during the Napoleonic wars.
A contemporary of A. S. Pushkin, he, like Eugene Onegin, 'read Adam Smith (not sharing his views on freedom of trade-A. R.) and was a deep economist', which was manifested when Cancrin performed the duties of quartermaster General: he became famous for reducing unreasonable monetary requests from army suppliers.
In 1823, Kankrin was appointed Minister of Finance instead of the corrupt count D. A. Guryev and worked in this post for 21 years – no Finance Minister in tsarist Russia lasted so long in this 'shooting' position.
In 1839, the Minister had a stroke and asked the Emperor to resign-not 'due to the deterioration of health', as we sometimes use to formulate the suspension of stolen officials, but because he worked hard for 15 hours a day.
The Emperor did not let his Minister go on a well-deserved rest: the reform of the state's monetary system was on the agenda in Russia, and the State Bank was absent at that time in the country - it was created only in 1860.
Being incorruptible and beating the hands of presumptuous suppliers is one thing, but putting a stable Foundation under the state's monetary system is a hundred times more difficult task.
The reform of monetary circulation, which went down in history as the Kankrin reform, meant the introduction of a system of silver monometallism in Russia.
In the June 1939 Imperial Decree, it was written that the silver coin will be considered the main coin of circulation, and banknotes-secondary signs of value at the rate against the silver coin of 3 p. 50 kopecks.
From January 1, 1840, all transactions were ordered to be calculated in silver rubles, which were previously minted in the required amount. What is important: not only paper banknotes-the nominal value of copper and platinum coins was officially expressed in silver rubles, and gold rubles were quoted in relation to the same silver ruble.
'2 kopecks in silver' is 2/100 of the purchasing power of 1 silver ruble. Such coins were minted from 1839 to 1848 at 3 mints, and in 1842-in a circulation of 12.5 million at the Yekaterinburg mint, in a circulation of 4.8 million at the Izhora (Kolpinsky) mint, and in a circulation of 3 million at the Suzun mint.
The weight of the coin is 20.48 g, the diameter is 33 mm, and the edge is smooth. On the obverse – the monogram of Nicholas I and the Imperial crown, on the reverse-the denomination and year of issue-1842.
On coins of the Russian Empire, you can see the initials of mintsmeisters and engravers, but there are no initials of Finance Ministers.
The inscription on the exchange copper coins '... kopecks in silver' is essentially an autograph of the person who brought the monetary circulation of the Russian Empire to the common denominator-silver.
This is how Georg Ludwig Kankrin, a German by birth, entered Russian history and was marked by the original inscription on the coins.
As they say in his historical homeland: 'Wo Taten sprechen, bedarf es der Worte nicht' - 'Where deeds speak, words are not needed'.
2 копейки серебром 1842 г.
2 копейки 1842 г.
Country
:
Российская империя
Denomination
:
2 копейка
Year
:
1842
Mint
:
Circulation
:
Material
:
Медь
Weight
:
20.48
Diameter
:
33
