Efimok

(Polish, joachymik; name derived from the city of Joachimsthal [present-day Jáchymov], Czechoslovakia, where efimki were minted).

(1) The Russian name for a German silver coin, the Joachimsthaler, which was brought into Russia in the 17th and early 18th centuries and sometimes used as raw material for minting of Russian silver coins. The efimok weighed 28 g of which about 25–26 g were pure silver. In 1704 the weight of the efimok was adopted as the standard of the silver ruble. (2) A Russian silver ruble minted in 1654–55 in the reign of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich. In 1654 efimki were struck on thalers from which images and inscriptions had been removed. In 1655 from 800,000 to 1 million full-value “efimki with marks” (thalers with two marks, the kopek stamp and the date 1655) were issued. These coins were officially valued at 64 kopeks. In 1655 the efimki of 1654 were declared to be equal in value to the new coins. At the beginning of 1659, efimki were forbidden to circulate and were redeemed for copper money. For a long time they continued to circulate in the Ukraine.