Yekaterinburg Mint was a state-owned enterprise mint that made copper coins that operated in Yekaterinburg from 1725 to 1876. It was on the site of what is now Historical Square, on both banks of the Iset River.
The mint was established in the Urals with the approval of Peter I, on the initiative of Georg Wilhelm de Gennin and Vasily Tatishchev, who had studied European experience of local coinage and sought to create a local source of money to support the development of the metallurgical industry. The mint operated intermittently from 1725 to 1876 and, by the end of the 18th century, was the main national producer of copper money. In the 1790s, the Yekaterinburg mint produced about 90% of all Russian coinage, and in the early 19th century, after the closure of the Yekaterinburg Ironworks, the mint became — and remained until its closure — the city's principal industrial enterprise. Depending on the required volume of production, the mint's staff numbers varied over time, ranging at different periods from 400 to more than 2,000 people.
In the 18th century, Yekaterinburg struck copper plate money and blanks to supply the Moscow mints; since 1736, following a decree by Anna Ioannovna, it struck national Russian coinage at a rate of 10 rubles per pood. Later, on the basis of several imperial decrees, coins withdrawn from circulation were reminted. In the 19th century, the mint mainly struck small-denomination change coins. In addition to coins, at various times the enterprise also produced copper tableware, tags for marking materials received from ascribed peasants, medals, pectoral crosses, seals for local government bodies, buttons, plaques, and percussion caps for artillery shells. Historians consider the total value of coins struck by the Yekaterinburg Mint over its entire existence at 150 million rubles. After coinage ceased in Yekaterinburg in 1876, part of the equipment was transferred to state-owned Ural factories, the coin dies were destroyed under the supervision of the Mining Department, and the factory buildings were handed over to the railway workshops of the Ural Mining Railway.
From the late 18th century coins struck in Yekaterinburg bore the letters Е. М. ("Yekaterinburg coin") on either the obverse or reverse.
In 1974, the surviving mint buildings were placed under protection as a federally significant object of Russia's cultural heritage.
Background
Several factors contributed to establish the mint in Yekaterinburg in the early 18th century. The intensive construction of state-owned mining works in the Urals required constant and substantial funding, which the authorities did not always provide promptly or in sufficient volume. Russia's copper-production technology at the time was almost identical to the European's, and pure copper was suitable for striking coins. The first copper-smelting works in the Urals appeared during this period — the Yegoshikha and Pyskor works, and later the Polevskoy fabrics. Historians also cite numerous problems with coin circulation nationwide, such as the use of money made from different metals and a large number of counterfeits, as other reasons for organising minting outside the country's central regions.
The Swedish model was taken as an example: there, during periods of economic decline, state-owned mines were permitted to strike heraldic copper plates — rectangular slabs whose face value corresponded to the real value of the copper. These plates were put into circulation in the same place where they were produced.
History
Plate Yard of the Yekaterinburg Fabric (1725–1735)
At the end of 1722, the German-born engineer, holding the rank of major general, Georg Wilhelm de Gennin was appointed by Peter I as head of the Ural Mining Administration. In December of that year, he notified the Berg Collegium of the resumption of construction of the works on the Iset River and the fortress beside it, which had been begun by his predecessor Vasily Tatishchev. On 8 June 1723, de Gennin sent a tray made from the first smelting of copper, along with his personal adjutant, as a gift to Catherine I, asking that the new works be named in the empress's honor. By April 1724, de Gennin reported to Peter I by letter that 1,500 poods of copper had been smelted at the Yekaterinburg and Uktus works.
De Gennin's goal was to obtain state permission to strike coins in the Urals amid a shortage of state funding. The Senate had allocated 130,000 rubles for the construction of the Ural works, and by 1725 building the still-unfinished Yekaterinburg works and fortress had cost 150,000. De Gennin set off for St. Petersburg at the end of January 1725 in the hope of receiving new funds from the treasury, but he learned of Peter I's death while still en route.
In December 1724, to gain familiarity with the economic and political situation in Sweden, which had been defeated in the Great Northern War, Peter I sent Vasily Tatishchev abroad, where he remained until April 1726. In his reports home he described the local monetary system and heavy copper coins — plates. Following Peter I's death, on the basis of Tatishchev's and de Gennin's reports, a Senate decree was issued on 14 June 1725 and confirmed by Catherine I, ordering that "at the Siberian state-owned works, plates be made from pure red copper, stamped in the center with the value and, at each corner, the coat of arms; namely, ruble, half-ruble, quarter-ruble and ten-kopeck denominations; but that these plates be produced at a weight of 10 rubles per pood, without deducting the cost of labor and other expenses from that weight, and that these plates circulate among the people for all manner of goods, and in taxes, and into and out of the treasury". This decree ended state funding for the construction of new works, significantly limiting the freedom of action of de Gennin, who had again been appointed head of the Ural Mining Administration.
In the center of each plate was stamped its denomination, the word Екатеринбурхъ, and the year of issue. The corner dies depicted a double-headed eagle bearing a shield with Catherine I's monogram. In 1726 the Berg Collegium approved placing the coat of arms of Moscow — a horseman with a spear — on the heraldic dies instead.
On 6 October 1725, de Gennin arrived at the Yеgoshikha works with a team of seven Moscow master coiners. On 9 October 1725, de Gennin issued instructions to Bergeschworen Konstantin Artemyevich Gordeyev, directing that: the workshop where the plates were to be stamped should be located in the shed where the trip-hammers on the far bank were housed; the blanks for the copper plates were to be beaten out there; the presses for cutting the plates were to be cast by master Deyman (Deichman); master Ivan Konstantinov, responsible for engraving the dies, was to immediately engrave dies to the sample provided, forging the dies from the most suitable steel; the hammer used to strike the plates was to be cast only after first determining the right weight, so that the design could be struck in a single blow — if it proved too light, a heavier one should be cast; and a tool should be devised to mark the edges of the plates so that no one could clip them. De Gennin's instructions to the craftsmen departed in many respects from the Berg Collegium's direct instructions to follow Swedish technology exactly. For example, de Gennin tried to speed up the pood-weight copper ingots forging by casting them into longer, thinner molds, greased the plate-cutting shears with vegetable oil, and coated the dies with wax. The finished plates were fired in furnaces and then soaked for a day in the sediment left over from brewing kvass, saving on coloring in this way.
On 1 December 1725 at the Yekaterinburg works, the newly formed Plate Yard began striking square copper "plates" with face values of 1 ruble, 50, 25 and 10 kopecks, at a rate of 10 rubles per pood (i.e., 10 rubles obtained from one pood of copper). The Plate Yard was located on the site now occupied by the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts (later a military barracks stood there, then a factory hospital, and later still an almshouse). In March 1726, the Yekaterinburg plates entered circulation; on 10 March de Gennin sent the empress samples of five- and one-kopeck plates, requesting permission to strike small-denomination coins. On 28 April 1726, Catherine I issued a decree permitting the manufacture of one pood of five-kopeck plates and two poods of one-kopeck plates, and by a decree of 14 April 1726, she formally introduced the large-denomination Yekaterinburg plates into full monetary circulation, with a design modified from de Gennin's original proposal.
In 1726, the works issued copper plates worth a total of 38,771 rubles 26 kopecks, weighing 3,877 poods. However, during his trip to Europe, Tatishchev discovered that Dutch merchants had taken to hoarding Swedish plates and exporting them for metallurgical purposes. Whereas the export of ordinary copper ingots was subject to duties, plates counted as money rather than simply metal, and so could be exported to Holland freely in any quantity. This drove down the value of copper and made the expense of striking the plates themselves pointless. He conveyed his concerns to members of the Supreme Privy Council, which concluded that de Gennin's initiatives were aimed at securing full autonomy from the Senate. As a result, Catherine I ordered by a personal decree of 30 December 1726 to stop the production of plates in Yekaterinburg.
In addition, the square copper coins were heavy (a 1-ruble coin weighed 1/10 of a pood — 1 kg 638 g) and inconvenient to use; the public accepted them reluctantly, and counterfeiters reminted them into round coins. In 1726, master coiners also reported to de Gennin that it was impossible to produce coins at an exactly fixed weight, since the available conditions and tools did not allow for it. By a decree of Catherine I of 26 January 1727, plate production at the Yekaterinburg works was halted; the works first switched to producing copper blanks for the Moscow mints, and then to producing copper tableware and bells, which it continued to do until the end of 1734, despite numerous appeals and letters from de Gennin to the Senate, to Peter II, and then to Anna Ioannovna.
The copper plates were withdrawn from circulation and exchanged for silver. As a result, more than 1,300 poods of copper, worth over 13,000 rubles, were returned to the treasury within six months. In total, over 1726–1727, plates were issued to a total value of 38,770 rubles, including 1,687 one-ruble pieces, 2,209 fifty-kopeck pieces, 15,017 twenty-five-kopeck pieces, 321,811 ten-kopeck pieces, 651 five-kopeck pieces, and 1,096 one-kopeck pieces.
Copper Blanks Office → Monetary Affairs Office → Mint (1736–1762)