1985 Soviet 1 Kopek

The 1985 Soviet 1 kopek was minted from aluminum, a switch prompted by the USSR's material shortages during Gorbachev's perestroika reforms.

This coin, weighing just over a gram, featured the standard Soviet design: the state emblem on the obverse and the denomination on the reverse. It circulated widely in an economy grappling with inflation. No one knows the exact mintage figures; records from that era are spotty at best.

As an aluminum piece, it lacked the heft of earlier copper coins, which made it prone to easy loss in pockets or change jars. That's about as exciting as it gets for a coin worth less than a cent at the time.

Production continued until the Soviet collapse, but this particular year marks a footnote in numismatics.