The first coinage after the Russian civil war was minted in 1921–1923 with silver coins in denominations of 10, 15, 20 and 50 kopecks and 1 ruble. ... The 10, 15, and 20 kopecks were minted with a purity of 50% silver while the ruble and half-ruble were minted with a purity of 90% silver. There was a time when owning this coin could have cost you your life. Following the downfall of the last Russian Czar and his “White Army,” of loyalists, the communist “Reds” swept the nation, with Communist Party boss Joseph Stalin leading the charge. But all was not well. By 1930, the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a financial mess. Stalin had a solution: He decreed that all silver currency would be replaced by coins made of base metals and ordered the all precious metal coins be confiscated from Soviet citizens. Disappointed in the amount of silver being collected, Stalin wrote a letter instructing his henchmen to hold those in the Finance Ministry and Central Bank responsible by purging their ranks through systematic executions “including several dozen common cashiers.” Thus, this silver coin gained its bloody nickname.