Lot 2409

Description

Russia, silver countermarked coinage, silver yefimok, (28.94 g), with countermarks of czar on horseback within dotted border and date 1655 in rectangle; overstruck on a Spanish Netherlands, Philip II of Spain, (1556-1598), silver ecu (28.94 g), Brabant mint, mm hand, dated 1XXX. obv. PHS D G HISP ANG Z REX DVX BRAB, armored bust to left; 1557 below, rev. around DOMINVS MIC HI ADIVTOR hand, crowned coat-of-arms on crossed batons, flanked by briquets to left and right, coat-of-arms over long cross fourchee in satire, (KM.424, D.4432 (countermarking) on D.8625, G&H 210-1c [host coin]). Countermark nearly very fine, host coin fair, very rare.

Ex Alan Jordan Collection.

Like the word taler, 'yefimok' derived from the name of Joachimsthal, passing into Russian from the Polish word joachymik. The Soviet Academy of Science Dictionary of the Russian language, 11th to 17th centuries (eds S G Barkhudarov and G A Bogatova, Moscow, 1978) distinguishes three usages of these talers as silver coins struck by many Western European countries and made use of in Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries as a basic monetary medium. The Moscow mint made these yefimoks on foreign silver coins by countermarking them with the above described countermarks. It was valued at one ruble or 64 kopecks.