Coins of the Russian Federation interesting facts. The most interesting thing about coins. We want to introduce you closer to one of the options for money, with coins. Some interesting facts about coins
The history of coins has more than one thousand years. Coins were primarily used as banknotes, later they began to be collected. But sometimes people find completely unusual uses for coins, and it is in this direction that we will present some interesting facts.
1. Coins are used as weights in Dominican Republic. And now on a coin of 10 cents is its weight - 2.5 grams.
2. In 1959, Canada tried to use coins for length measurements. They were issued with a diameter of 1 inch, while a hundred cents was exactly one foot. But this idea was quickly abandoned due to the fact that the coins were too bulky.
3. Every Soviet child knew from school interesting fact that especially for the wedding of Krupskaya and Lenin during the exile in Shushenskoye, one of the exiles made wedding rings from copper nickels.
4. Every British military pilot who flew over Kosovo was given gold coins. They were accompanied by a note with a proposal not to kill the downed pilot, but to take these gold ones for his life.
5. Suvorov often exchanged his salary for silver coins and rewarded distinguished soldiers with them. And the soldiers considered it a great honor to wear such a “premium” coin on their chest as a medal, having made a hole in it
6. Coins were often used in the creation of monuments. For example, officers of the fleet at the monument to Admiral Makarov collected nickels, which were then melted down. Children from all over the world collected coins, from which the bells of the world were cast and installed in different cities.
7. coins- were the best indicator of the welfare of the country, the reliability of its rulers. It was this role that the coins played in the case from the History of the Byzantine Empire. At an audience with the ruler of Ceylon were merchants from Persia and Byzantium. To the question of whose ruler is stronger and richer, the Persian praised his king for a long time. The Byzantine was silent.
When the merchants were asked to show the coins, the local ruler immediately received an answer to his question: the Persian had a silver, small coin, while the Byzantine had a gold, large, clear, high-quality one. There were also special coins, which were tokens for the right to visit the brothel-lupanaria, and judging by the image and advertising of its services. This advertising text was minted on coins in 1987 in Belgium.
8. Referee uses coin as a lot when choosing the gates for teams before a football match.
9. The Germans use the coin as a control tool in assessing the quality of beer. They put one pfennig on the foam in a beer mug, the coin does not sink in the "correct" beer.
10. With the help of coins, they regulate the course of the most famous clock - London's Big Ben. The chief custodian places or removes a onepence coin on the pendulum, which changes the clock by exactly one second.
The ruble as a national currency is known to many generations of Russians and Soviet people. This name has become so tightly merged into the consciousness of the masses that many use it as a synonym for the word "money". Meanwhile, the monetary unit familiar to all Russians has an interesting origin, and when you get acquainted with its history, you can find out a lot of amazing, unknown and amazing facts.
What does the title mean
Not only numismatists and bonists (experts on obsolete paper money) argue about the origin of the name, but also historians, as well as linguists. They have several versions that can explain the origin of this term.
The first of them concerns the way in which Russian money was received in ancient times. Before their appearance, hryvnias were used in everyday life, but they were more expensive, large and heavy, and therefore inconvenient for small calculations. Their weight reached almost 800 g, and the value was very high. Carrying a hryvnia, for example, to a fair, was inconvenient and impractical if a person was not going to make expensive purchases.
In order to pay for small purchases or insignificant services, it was possible to get by with a small part of the hryvnia, so they began to cut them into four parts. The hryvnias themselves were a silver rod, which was worn not in wallets, but in knapsacks. The first difficulties began to arise when the cost of the goods did not reach the whole hryvnia, and the buyer was not so generous as to give a “tip” of ¾ hryvnia, so it had to be cut into pieces.
First, at the fairs, which were not only the focus of trade, but also the center of public life, the first "exchange offices" appeared. At such points, blacksmiths or just strong men cut the silver rod into pieces for a small reward. The smoother these cut quarters were, the better, because none of the sellers wanted to lose a few grams of silver because of a trembling hand.
Other historians believe that the name came from the Arabic language, in which "rub" is a quarter or ¼ part. Another version is tied to the concept of "rupee", which is older monetary unit th. From the ancient Indian rupiam is translated as "processed silver." This single-root word began to be used by Russian people.
Ruble traveler
This currency in the entire history of the monetary relationships of mankind is considered one of the most used in the old days. It not only appeared a very long time ago (approximately at the end of the 13th century) and lasted for many centuries in a row, but was also used over vast territories.
In ancient times, people in the Russian principalities paid with its help, and it also served as a subject of contention and a desirable object in times of fragmentation and internecine wars, in the Russian kingdom, the Russian Empire and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
With coming civil war this universal currency acted in a huge number of formations that bred like mushrooms after rain, and after the appearance of the Soviet Union became its official monetary unit, acting in accordance with the law until 1991. With the collapse of the USSR, the currency "by inheritance" passed to Russia, but it was not immediately abandoned in Latvia, Ukraine, Tajikistan and many other states.
Now the ruble is the official currency not only in Russia, but also in Belarus, in addition, it is used in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, as well as on the territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk self-proclaimed republics.
Cost and value
At the moment, the practice has been adopted all over the world, according to which the equivalent of any standard monetary unit is a hundred coins. Such a system is considered familiar and self-evident. But few people know the amazing fact that this phenomenon first appeared in Russia in the 16th century.
The person who carried out such a reform was the Princess of the Great Moscow Principality Elena Glinskaya. To the townsfolk, she is better known as the mother of Ivan the Terrible, but historians do not tire of being surprised by this woman who carried out a coup d'état, during which the successors of her deceased husband were removed from power. During her reign, she managed to carry out a large-scale reform, which led to the stabilization and strengthening of the economy of the entire state. It was during this reform that a common monetary unit was proclaimed on the territory of the Grand Moscow Principality - the ruble, which they decided to equate to 100 coins.
Elena Glinskaya died as a result of poisoning, being a young and flourishing woman at the age of 30, but for financiers and historians she forever remained the standard of an economist-reformer.
virtual money
Many people think that virtual money appeared only a few years ago, but in broad sense this is not true. The ruble also existed in a “virtual” form for a long time, which for several centuries was used by state officials and ordinary people only as a unit of account.
The first coin, on which the word "ruble" was minted, was issued as a result of the processing of secondary raw materials. Such raw materials were European thalers, which have already worn out and become unusable. Such money was produced in Europe on the personal order of the second Russian Tsar from the Romanov family. Alexei Mikhailovich reacted with great trepidation to the development of the design of the national currency. On the obverse was depicted the tsar sitting on a horse, and on the reverse - the symbol of Russia - a double-headed eagle.
Mass production began only during the reign of Peter the Great. During these years, the process of minting the first silver Russian coins, in which the noble metal content reached 100%. However, this strategy soon turned out to be too wasteful, and after 50 years it was decided to reduce the silver content by 30%.
People die for metal
For a very long time (four centuries), the Russian monetary unit remained silver. At that time, only jewelry and church paraphernalia were made of gold. But in 1897, the "Gold Standard" was adopted, according to which Russian money began to be made from red gold. Paper money did not exist then, and coins containing gold were valued very highly. An indicator of value can be considered that for only five such coins one could buy a young cow, which was able to soon bring offspring. Before the advent of automobiles, cows were one of the most expensive purchases, as they not only meant a well-fed life, but also a possible profit from the sale of dairy products.
After the civil war in 1923, in order for ordinary citizens to trust the money of the Land of the Soviets, gold was again added to them. A sower was depicted on such coins, so they were called "sowers" among the people. Each of them contained 7.2 g of pure gold. "Sowers" were in circulation until 1982, after which they ceased to be used, but it was this coin that exchange offices around the world accepted with pleasure.
At the moment, its value is important not only in terms of the presence of gold, but also as an exhibit for private collections of famous numismatists. You can sell it on the Internet in a matter of minutes for 300 thousand rubles.
Ordinary ruble coins after the economic reform of 1961, they were equivalent to 0.99 g of gold, but ordinary citizens did not have the right to exchange them for gold. This value was used only to determine the price in respect of foreign currencies.
Internet query statistics show that people still want to know the equivalent of Russian money to gold. Unfortunately, at the moment they do not have a gold equivalent. Moreover, the cost of minting any coin worth less than 5 rubles is more than the face value of the coin itself.
The weight of wealth
The current time is characterized by the fact that millions in one second can be transferred from one account to another by lightly pressing a key on a computer. But it was not always so. Before the advent of virtual payments and bank cards All payments were made in cash only. Even now wealth has its weight.
For example, 1 million coins of 10 rubles. weighs 847 kg, so in order to steal such an amount, you will have to use a car. Even in banknotes of 100 rubles. a million will "pull" by weight by 9.3 kg. But things were even worse in the old days. The heaviest money in Russia was minted starting in 1725. The weight of such a coin was 1.6 kg. The metal from which it was minted was copper. Oddly enough, this coin was square, and its sides were 18 cm.
It was at that time that Lomonosov was awarded a state prize of 2,000 rubles for his contribution to Russian science. The weight of such a reward for the work of a scientist amounted to almost a ton. It is clear that Mikhail Vasilyevich could not carry it away, so he was forced to hire a cart drawn by three horses, which transported the award home to the luminary of Russian science in several walkers.
This weight record could only be broken in 2010, when five-kilogram coins with a face value of 50 thousand rubles were officially issued. There are only 50 of them in the world, so the actual cost is many times more expensive. You can freely pay with such a “giant” anywhere: a store, a restaurant, transport, but it would never occur to anyone to do this.
"Unnecessary" money
A curious incident occurred with a whole batch of freshly minted gold money in 1825. A few years earlier, the crowned monarch Alexander I decided to prepare a magnificent coronation of his eldest son Constantine, who was to take the throne after the death of the current king. In this regard, Alexander I ordered the minting of coins, which would depict a portrait of his successor. This money was supposed to come into circulation just from the day of the coronation of Constantine.
Already after the death of Alexander I, Constantine suddenly announced that he did not intend to occupy the throne. Such a decision was balanced and final, no persuasion helped to change it, so the crown passed to his younger brother, Nikolai, which the latter was incredibly happy about. But the issue with the manufactured batch of money, prepared for the coronation of Constantine, remained open. It was decided to poison her for melting down, because there was no other way out.
By that time, the people knew about the upcoming event, so they joked about the fact for a long time, but after a few years this embarrassment was safely forgotten.
Country of millionaires
Many people remember how quickly money depreciated in the early 90s. Then people were paid millions, and a simple bun cost several thousand. The process lasted 5 years, until in 1998 a thousand was equated to 1 ruble. But even this was not the saddest episode in the life of the Russian currency.
The period of the greatest cheapness of the Russian currency fell on 1917-1921. In a time of great political change, mind-boggling inflation took place. Money depreciated at such a speed that they simply did not have time to print. At that moment, the so-called "Kerenki" appeared, which were given to people uncut on large sheets of paper. Already at home, the recipients of cash "semi-finished products" themselves cut the banknotes and could use them.
sexy bills
The title of the sexiest banknote was earned by a banknote in denominations of 100 rubles. At first glance, it may not be clear what caused this, since it depicts Apollo, located on top of the canopy of the Bolshoi Theater. Looking more closely, you can find the reason: in most of the images, his manhood is chastely covered with a fig leaf, but here it is quite clearly visible, since it is not covered by anything. Such nudity is not found on any banknote in the world.
To remember
A huge number of well-aimed expressions, anecdotes, jokes, sayings and proverbs were invented by the people on the topic of Russian money. They sing humorous songs about them and write literary works. It was decided to perpetuate this currency even in the form of monumental structures.
Monuments to the ruble can be found in Tomsk and Dimitrovgrad, where tourists who come here take pictures with them all year round.
In Estonia, during the introduction of a new monetary unit, farewell to the ruble happened very realistically, they even installed ... a tombstone, which to this day is preserved and serves as a memory of many decades when these banknotes rustled in the wallets of Estonians.
Judging by the references in chronicles, the ruble appeared at the end of the 13th century. But then it was not a coin, but a silver ingot, reaching up to 20 cm in length and weighing about 200 grams.
The word "ruble" is a relative of the word "cut". And it is no coincidence: a two-hundred-gram silver piece was indeed cut off from a more massive ingot - the hryvnia.
The equivalent of almost any monetary unit is considered to be 100 coins. This tradition first appeared in Russia in the 16th century. The reform carried out by Elena Glinskaya equated the ruble to ten hryvnias, and the dime to ten kopecks. But for a long time, the ruble existed only "virtually", as a unit of account. It was first minted under Alexei Mikhailovich, and the mass production of pure silver rubles was launched only under the “carpenter king” Peter the Great, in 1704. Then the content of valuable metal in coins reached almost one hundred percent. But by the second half of the century, the ruble consisted of only 2/3 of silver.
It remained silver until the end of the 19th century. And in 1897, according to the "Gold Standard", it began to be produced from gold. The golden tsarist ruble was a very valuable monetary unit. For five or ten of these coins, one could buy a good cow - milking and capable of bearing offspring.
Issuing "iron" rubles is a very unprofitable business. The production costs of each far exceed its face value.
Today, pronouncing the word "chervonets", we mean a monetary unit worth 10 rubles. But in the 19th century, the equivalent of a chervonets was three rubles. Its rise in price occurred in 1923, when a gold coin was issued in the USSR. soviet chervonets with the image of a sower.
Finance Minister Witte did not like the word "ruble" at all. At the end of the 19th century, he proposed to replace it with a more homespun one - "Rus" and even "Rus". But his opinion was not heeded.
In 1915 in Russia, many players in gambling got caught in a scam with the so-called "Brut ruble". This paper bill was named after the cashier Brutus, who allegedly signed the money, and then, being in a state of insanity, committed suicide. There was a rumor among the players that a real Brut ruble supposedly brings good luck, you just have to bet on it. Naturally, everyone rushed in search of the ill-fated ruble, and the scammers skillfully profited from human greed, offering "the same one" for fabulous money.
Modern Russian ruble appeared in 1993. At the same time, due to the depreciation of money, all without exception the citizens of Russia became millionaires: they paid in the thousands and received a salary in the millions. With the onset of 1998, a thousand became equal to 1 ruble. Since then, it has not been changed any more.
Our contemporaries contemptuously call the ruble "wooden". But in 1961 its value was equal to almost a gram of gold. In its golden years, both literally and figuratively, it was a more expensive monetary unit than the dollar. And for the first time sharply lost ground in 1991.
It is immortalized not only in history, but also in monumental buildings. Monuments of this currency, installed in Dimitrovgrad and Tomsk, are considered local attractions. But the Estonians, breaking with the Soviet past, literally buried him, setting up a tombstone for him.
Do you know where the name "penny" came from? On the silver money that Ivan the Terrible ordered to be minted, there was an image of the Grand Duke with a spear in his hand, and personally John ordered to call them "spear money".
10th place: The heaviest metal coins are Swedish rectangular copper coins worth 10 daler, which were issued in the 18th century. One such coin weighs 19 kilograms 710 grams, and the royal seal is stamped on the corners.
9th place: Money from the most unusual material. At the beginning of the 19th century, a Russian-American company in Alaska issued leather money. The issue in the amount of 10 thousand units worth 42 thousand rubles was printed on sealskin and was in circulation until 1826. Now one leather coin from those issues is worth as much as the same amount of gold by weight.
8th place: The strangest name has a Venetian coin of the sixteenth century. It's called "newspaper". And, by the way, it was she who was at first, and newspapers appeared later. In 1556, the first printed publication (Written News) appeared in Venice, and its cost was determined in one newspaper. They got used to it so much that the name of the coin was transferred to the name of the edition.
7th place: The largest coin in value was the Indian minted in 1654. gold coin 200 mohurs, weighing 2 kilograms 177 grams and 136 millimeters in diameter. The imprint of the coin is kept in the British Museum in London. The only known copy of the coin disappeared in the Indian state of Bihar in 1810.
6th place: The largest amount ever paid for a single coin is $314,000. For this amount, a silver decadrachm from ancient Athens was sold at an auction in Zurich.
5th place: The smallest Russian coin in value and weight. They called her half money. A polushka was equal to one fourth of a penny, and its weight was only 0.17 grams.
4th place: The largest Russian coin was issued by order of Catherine 1 in 1725. This is a huge square copper ruble measuring 18 by 18 centimeters and 5 millimeters thick. The coin weighed 1 kilogram 636 grams! The largest modern silver coin was issued in Russia in 1999. She weighs 3000 grams.
3rd place: The heaviest Russian gold coin. This is an imperial, minted by order of Catherine II. It was equal to 10 rubles and weighed 11.61 grams. The heaviest modern gold coin was issued in China, it weighs 5 kg.
2nd place: The only Soviet gold coin. This is a gold Soviet chervonets. Golden chervonets began to be minted in 1923, and it was the only hard currency in Soviet history. By the way, the minting of these chervonets continued until the 80s.
1 place: Can money ever be needed? It's hard to believe, but in Russia there were the most useless coins in history. In 1825, after the death of Alexander I, but before the next coronation (when no one knew yet who would take the Russian throne), a trial coin was minted with the image of Alexander's eldest son, Konstantin. However, Constantine renounced the throne in favor of his brother Nicholas, and the entire circulation of coins had to be melted down.
An important and integral tool of modern society is money, passing through a huge number of hands. The layman, treating them as a means of calculation, does not even think that he involuntarily touches history. In this article, we will look at the most interesting facts about money.
Interesting about money: how it all began
The very first coins made of an alloy of silver and gold (called an electron) appeared in Libya in the 7th century BC. e. The first paper money was introduced in China due to the lack of raw materials for manufacturing. copper coins. An amazing fact about money: paper bills were originally used in burial ceremonies for the dead. They were burned at the stake near the grave, believing that in this way they would fall into another world, where they would greatly facilitate the life of the deceased.
Paper money appeared in mass use much later. The greed of the rulers and the understanding of the possibility of printing an immense amount of paper with a pattern led to their depreciation; the cost of candy wrappers decreased by almost 70 times, which forced copper coins to be put back into circulation.
China is a country of romantics
An amazing fact about money: in modern China, paper bills are a great way to find your soulmate. To do this, girls and boys in search write their data and desired requirements for a partner on them, after which they put the money into circulation. Unfortunately, the world's most sought-after banknotes are also the dirtiest banknotes, with about hundreds of thousands of microbes on their surface.
First money
There are such interesting facts about money: in ancient times, items that were of the highest value at the time of their era were used for settlement transactions: stones, shells, bird feathers, dog teeth, pig tails, dried fish, glass beads, cocoa beans, tea bars, tobacco, corn and rice grains, livestock. AT Ancient Russia when trading with eastern countries, marten skins were used (which served as the name for the kuna coin), in China - pieces of silk, and in Asia - opium.
With the development of civilizations, commodity barter became more inconvenient, then the exchange of products began to be carried out on
The history of the origin of round coins
What other interesting facts about money exist? Modern coins have the usual round shape. However, this was not always the case. During excavations in Ancient Greece thin strange rods were found, similar in weight and size. They were depicted on the frescoes of the past period, and, as scientists have established, these were precisely the ancient Greek coins. The knitting of such coins had a certain value, fit tightly in the palm of your hand and had the name "drachma", which has survived to this day.
Habitual round form coins came from ancient Rome, where they were printed in the temple of Juno. At first, images of goddesses were minted on them, which over time changed to images of emperors - great and who contributed to the development of their country.
It was not customary to place images of living rulers, although he did not consider this a bad sign, ordering to mint his own image on money.
Russia: its own history of money
In Russia, as in other countries, before the advent of paper money ordinary coins were in use. The history of Russia has preserved many amazing facts about money. Here is one of them: when Lomonosov was paid a bonus of 2000 rubles, he needed to hire workers with carts to transport it, because the total weight of the reward was approximately 1 ton.
The history of the origin of the familiar word "penny" is interesting. In ancient times, minted coins with a face value of less than a ruble were depicted with a spear in their hand. Such money, at the behest of Ivan the Terrible, began to be called spear money, and then acquired the name familiar to everyone. A penny today is considered the smallest coin in value, however, under Peter I, there was a coin of a smaller denomination. It was equal to 1/8 of a penny, weighed 0.17 grams and was called a half-half. The largest coin (copper ruble) weighing 1.636 kg was issued in 1725 during the time of Catherine I. There is such an amazing fact about money that in Sweden the heaviest coin weighed 19 kilograms and was issued in the 18th century. It had a rectangular shape, and at the corners of it there were prints of the royal seal.
How much does a million dollars weigh?
Almost every person at least once imagined himself the owner of a million dollars. So, the amazing facts about money suggest that if future wealth is put on the scales, then in hundred-dollar bills its mass will be 10 kilograms, and in one-cent coins - 246 tons. And if you gradually accumulate coins, which is what almost all the children of our planet do, then you can pour the bells of the world, as was done by Japanese children. One of them is in New York.
The most amazing fact about money is its uselessness. In 1923 in Germany, during a period of hyperinflation, money completely lost its value and cost so little that it was used to paste over walls instead of wallpaper or gave it to children to play with.
- For the production of paper money, linen and cotton are used in a ratio of 1: 3, which determines the strength of the product, which can withstand 400 double folds.
- About 1/3 of the world's population lives on less than $2 a day, and more than a billion people spend less than $1 a day.
- In Canada, the first denominations were playing cards. And in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, money made from seal skin was put into circulation and remained in circulation until 1826.
- According to rough estimates, there are about 845 billion dollars in circulation in the world.
- The first woman depicted on money, and the only one of its kind, is Martha Washington, whose portrait adorns the denomination of 1 dollar.
- Money Facts states that the average life of a bill is 7 years and 4 months.
- The plastic credit card was invented in 1949 by Frank McNamara while having dinner at a restaurant. The idea not to carry large quantities with you, but to replace them with a card, came to mind when Frank did not have enough cash to pay for dinner.
- The most unusual name was a Venetian coin dated to the 16th century - "newspaper". The usual printed editions began to be called that way an order of magnitude later. The cost of the first news printed on paper was equal to one newspaper.
- The largest banknote was the $100,000 denomination. It was released in 1934 for the purpose of using it in large banking transactions. By the way, the $ sign was invented in 1788 by Oliver Pollock. In the US, the most popular are 1- and 20-dollar bills, in the rest of the world, 100 dollars are preferred. The franc is the most widely used in the world, used in 34 countries.
- There is the following surprising fact about money: obsolete and obsolete banknotes in Russia serve as raw materials for the manufacture of roofing material, and in Germany fertilizers are also produced from them.
Such interesting facts about money give rise to reflection on the unusual and multifaceted history of the usual means of calculation for everyone.
