Rus - Ivan IV, "The Terrible" - Kopek

Wire Kopek "ПС", Novgorod Mint, Tsar Ivan IV Vasiljevich (1533 - 1584), circa 1547. OBVERSE: an image of a crowned horseman carrying a spear, the mint engraver's mark: "ПС" under the galloping horse.
REVERSE: the 5-line legend engraved in old cyrillic letters reads: "ЦРЬИ / КНSЬВ / ЕЛIКIIВ / AНЬВСЕ / IAРУСИ" ("Czar and Great Duke Ivan of Entire Rus").
Weight: 0.66 gram; Mint: Novgorod. (above info from a specialist site on 'Wire Money.') The site linked below indicates that the Kopeck should weight about .68 grams while the Denga is half that, about .34 grams. This Kopeck is about 10 x 16 mm and shows much better than average detail.
Agora Auction #68, Lot 338: Their description has this as a Denga denomination and the "ПС" engravers mark attributed to Pskov mint rather than Novgorod.
Ivan IV, popularly known as “Ivan the Terrible,” a strong and formidable ruler. The epithet “Terrible” is in fact a mistranslation from the Russian-language word “Groznyi” which in reality means “stern,” “formidable,” “feared by enemies.” Ivan’s long reign was marked by violent internal conflict and a series of wars against many foreign foes sparked by his desire to expand Muscovy’s frontiers, especially along and beyond the Volga river and to the Baltic seacoast in the west.
The Reform of 1534:
In 1534 a unified Russian monetary system made its first appearance, facilitated by the formation of a strong Russian state centered in Moscow. The currency reform was instituted by Elena Glinskaya, mother of Ivan IV.
Coinage Technique:
From the 14th century up till Peter the Great's time the minting technique of the silver coinage was as follows: silver was rolled into wire and sliced into equal sections of the proper weight. Little plates of slightly oval shape resulted. Relatively standard weight of the coins was achieved. The coins were struck by being placed between dies at which point the operator would hammer the upper die against the lower die. In 1704 the first Russian rubles were coined in Moscow. One hundred kopecks made a ruble.
VISIT ON-Line: A nice site on Russian Wire Money: [ link ]
VIEW & DOWNLOAD: "The Coinage of Russia - Wire Money, 1547 - 1598" by R.W. Julian at this: /library/Russian%20Wire%20Money_Julian.pdf
ALSO Available for the asking: "Russian Wire Money" by Frank A. Lapa (3+Mb). Contact me for this image copy [moneta@moneta-coins.com], I'll email it to you.

Brief history of Ivan "The Terrible" : Ivan IV Vasilyevich, called The Terrible (1530-84), Grand duke of Moscow (1533-47) and Czar of Russia (1547-84), was one of the creators of the Russian state.
Ivan was born in Moscow on August 25, 1530, the grandson of Ivan III and the son of Basil III, whom he succeeded at the age of three. He was the first Russian ruler to be formally crowned as czar. The first 13 years of Ivan's reign constitute one of the greatest periods of internal reform, external expansion, and centralization of state power in the history of Russia. In 1549 Ivan convoked the Zemsky Sobor, the first national representative assembly ever summoned by a Russian ruler. In the same year he initiated a comprehensive revision and modernization of the Russian law code. He conquered and annexed the Tatar khanates of Kazan' (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), bringing the entire Volga River within the borders of Russia and ending the threat of these Tatar areas to Russia. The long Livonian War (1558-83), an attempt to gain a foothold on the Baltic coast, was, however, ultimately unsuccessful.
Ivan's reign after 1560 is remarkable more for the czar's repeated displays of erratic behavior and wanton brutality than for his statesmanship. He surrounded himself with a select group of noblemen, whom he allowed to exercise despotic power over his entire domain. In 1570 he ravaged the town of Novgorod and ordered the slaying of thousands of its inhabitants because they had been reported, on dubious authority, to be conspiring against him. Ten years later Ivan brought personal tragedy upon himself when, in a fit of anger, he struck and killed his eldest and favorite son. In his later years, Ivan began the acquisition of Siberia after most of the Ob River Basin had been brought under Russian control (1581-83) by the cossack leader Yermak Timofeyevich. Ivan died on March 18, 1584. [Encarta ]