1661. Copper. A low-value coin that saved lives
This shilling of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a copper coin worth one-third of a grosz released during the reign of John Casimir (1648–1668). In the mid-17th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth went through a period of turmoil known as the Deluge – its most difficult since the beginning of statehood: the country was at war with Sweden, Moscow and their allies, almost its entire territory was overrun by enemies, one third of the population perished, cities and castles were destroyed, and cultural treasures were plundered. While most of the lost territory was recovered over time, along with independence, alas, the treasury was empty and the state was burdened by debt.
Under these critical circumstances, a decision was made in 1659 to strike copper coins with a nominal value comparable to silver shillings, or one-third of a grosz. Until then, almost all of Lithuania’s coins were struck from noble metal alloys, which nominally more or less equalled the value of the materials used: the greater the amount of gold or silver in the coin, the higher its nominal value. The factual value of these new copper shillings was barely 15 percent of the nominal. In modern-day circulation, such disparity in money is rather common, but in the 17th century it was considered to be too novel and aroused suspicion.
Italian Tito Livio Burattini (1617–1681), who was leasing the state mints, was given the task of realising this idea and the accompanying financial reform. Based on the Polonised version of his surname (Boratini), his minted copper coins came to be known as boratynka. For a long time these boratynka were Buratinni’s most widely known legacy, overshadowing all of his other merits. Only recently have researchers begun to discover and appreciate this figure anew – a forgotten 17th-century genius. Buratinni was noted for making several inventions of global significance: in 1647 he constructed a functioning flying machine (the ornitopterus), a counting machine in 1658 (the cyclograph), he was the first to discover the spots on Venus, and in 1675 he published his treatise Misura Universale in Vilnius in which he suggested introducing the metre as a measure of length (metro cattolico). Another hundred years later, the metre became the basis of a universal system of units of measurement.
Around a million Lithuanian copper shillings were minted (and almost the same amount of Polish equivalents), and to this day they are the most commonly found and least valuable coins, with every tenth one in circulation being a falsification. This mass emission of copper coins led to monetary chaos, inflation and dissatisfaction within the army; the first Lithuanian copper coins gradually became viewed as a symbol of decline, their meagre value translating into a saying – “not even worth a worn-down copper coin”. Nonetheless, the latest research has rehabilitated the minting of copper coins as a justifiable measure. They became a life-saver in controlling the economic crisis in the war-ravaged country, facilitating the financing of existential needs. The new form of money was gradually adopted: boratynka were in circulation in Lithuania and Poland for around a hundred years (1659–1766), and it was not long before silver and gold coins were completely withdrawn from daily circulation.