Russian 5 Kopeks 1996

The 1996 5 kopeks coin was one of the first Russian issues to use magnetic steel planchets, a cost-saving measure that let you stick it to a refrigerator door.

That steel composition reflected Russia's post-Soviet scramble for affordable materials, ditching the copper alloys of earlier decades. The coin features a simple design: the Russian coat of arms on the obverse, with the denomination and date on the reverse. It's about 2.5 grams and 19 millimeters across, unadorned and functional.

Mintage figures are spotty; official records from the 1990s Gosznak mint are incomplete. What we know is that these coins circulated widely but wore quickly due to the soft steel.

Plenty of myths circulate about their rarity, but they're common in circulated grades. If you find one, it's probably just a mundane piece of change, not a collector's dream.