Note 4 — Chapter I · DISCOVERY, OCCUPATION, AND TRANSFER.

The Russian currency is always expressed in kopecks and in rubles. Gold coinage there is seldom ever seen, and was never used in Alaska. The following table explains itself:

1 copper kopeck = 1 silver kopeck. 2 copper kopecks = 1 grösh. 3 copper kopecks = 1 alteen. 5 copper kopecks = 1 peetak. 5 silver kopecks = 1 peetak. 10 silver kopecks = 1 greevnah. 15 silver kopecks = 1 peteealtin. 20 silver kopecks = 1 dvoogreevenik. 25 silver kopecks = 1 chetvertak. 50 silver kopecks = 1 polteenah. 100 silver kopecks = 1 ruble.

The silver ruble is nearly equal to seventy-five cents in our coin. The paper ruble fluctuates in Russia from forty to fifty cents, specie value; in Alaska it was rated at twenty cents, silver. Much of the “paper” currency in Alaska during Russian rule was stamped on little squares of walrus hide.

A still smaller coin, called the “polooshka” worth ¼ kopeck, has been used in Russia. It takes its name from a hare-skin, “ooshka,” or “little ears,” which, before the use of money by the Slavs, was one of the lowest articles of exchange, pol signifying half, and polooshka, half a hare’s skin. From another small coin, the “deinga” (equal to ½ kopeck in value), is derived the Russian word for money, deingah or deingie.