What was an ounce of Ouralian platinum worth in 1832? Oh nevermind...
This.
The Russians, in the absence of other representative signs, employed other representative signs. The first was the skins of the martin, twenty of which were accounted for the value of a grivne {silver ingot=204 gram}
The word 'nogata'... seems to be derived from 'noga,' a foot. It appears to have been the paw of a marten with a fourth part of the skin. The vekoche was a kind of squirrel of the value of the fifth part of a nogata.
{...}
Ears, and even half-ears, have served for odd pieces of money, and hence the term poluchko, half-ear, is still applied to the fourth part of a Russian Kopeck.
This kind of money was highly inconvenient, and furnished occasion for frequent disputes.
And for making money, if knives were handy.
