Elizabeth Petrovna 5 Kopeks

One peculiarity of Elizabeth Petrovna's 5 kopeks coins is their inconsistent weight—some pieces vary by as much as 10 grams due to the rudimentary minting processes of 18th-century Russia.

That variability stemmed from the copper being sourced locally, often from Ural mines, and hammered into planchets that weren't always uniform. The coins themselves bore a simple design: Elizabeth's crowned monogram on the obverse and the imperial eagle on the reverse, struck mainly at the St. Petersburg mint between 1741 and 1762. We don't know the exact mintage figures; records from that era are spotty at best.

What we do know is that these coins circulated widely across the Russian Empire, greasing the wheels of trade in a growing economy. Spotting counterfeits was a constant headache for officials, given the metal's commonality. As for fakes, they popped up everywhere, from Moscow markets to Siberian outposts.

Some numismatists quip that handling these coins feels like lifting a small anvil—copper wasn't light back then.