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There's a Russian Wikipedia page about this you can churn through translate if you don't read Russian: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BD%D
by pvg 5y ago
There's a Russian Wikipedia page about this you can churn through translate if you don't read Russian:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%86%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B5%D0%BA https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B0...
The basic gist of it is that it's of 18th century, pre-Soviet origin, back when kopeks were srs money and there it was useful to have denomination between 10 and 25 kopeks.
In Soviet times, retail prices were set centrally and printed or sometimes physically stamped on the products themselves so things adding up to a ruble is not something central planners had to worry about too much. You could guarantee prices in cast iron as seen on the handle of this skillet:
https://i.imgur.com/OxPA6Ij.png https://i.imgur.com/OxPA6Ij.png
- AussieWog93 5y agoThanks, that explains a lot. The 3 kopeck coin is blowing my mind even more, though!
- pvg 5y agoOh the three kopeck coin was the most important coin. It went into the shared-glass soda machine. https://www.rbth.com/history/332037-ussr-vending-machines-virus https://www.rbth.com/history/332037-ussr-vending-machines-vi...
- AussieWog93 5y agoThanks again, man. Maybe it seems strange, but from where I sit it's always really interesting to read about the little things from the Soviet era that so many people remember fondly. We're all raised with stories of the famines and the gulags and all the horrible things that the communists did, so to see things like the old arcade machines or sodas or the best ice cream in the world (apparently!) is always really jarring in a positive way.
- euroderf 5y agoOn a visit to the Estonian SSR in 1987 I bought a bottle opener that had the price of 15 kopecks stamped on it. I assume this was quite close to the cost of production, possibly establishing that shared ownership of the means of production totally works for uncomplicated commodity "kitchen infrastructure" products, cutting out marketing costs and pricing variances. Certainly it did not close off opportunities for making fancier bottle openers. Win!