Kopa (, , , , , ) was a medieval unit of measurement used in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in the 15–18th-century

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

and

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. It denoted 60 pieces or 5 dozens of whatever was counted. It was used for counting large amounts of money (particularly

Prague groschen The Prague groschen (, , , ) was a groschen-type silver coin that was issued by Wenceslaus II of Bohemia since 1300 in the Kingdom of Bohemia and became very common throughout Medieval Central Europe. Etymology The inspiration came from Kingdom ...

s). For example, ransoms and

war reparations War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...

after the

Battle of Grunwald The Battle of Grunwald was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila), a ...

were counted in kopas of Prague groschen; the 16th-century treasury of the Grand Duchy was counted in kopas of

Lithuanian groschen Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

s. Kopa was also used to count grain sheaves or quantities of other products (for example, nails, eggs, cabbages). Kopa's original meaning was the number of Prague groschens that could be minted from a grzywna of silver. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that number was 60. In Poland, during the reign of

Casimir the Great Casimir III the Great (; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, retaining the title throughout the Galicia–Volhynia Wars. He was the last Polish king fr ...

(1333–1370), the weight of grzywna was reduced by about 20%. That meant that in Poland kopa was equal to 48. In the 15th century, Poland adopted the Lithuanian definition that a kopa is equal to 60. Germans had a similar unit, the '' Schock'', to count

Meissen groschen The Meissen ''groschen'' (''Meißner Groschen'') or broad ''groschen'' (''Breite Groschen'') was a Meissen-Saxon silver coin of the 14th and 15th centuries and the regional currency of the Margraviate of Meissen in the Late Middle Ages. It was int ...

minted by

Frederick II, Elector of Saxony Frederick II, The Gentle (''Friedrich, der Sanftmütige''; Frederick the Gentle; 22 August 1412 – 7 September 1464) was Elector of Saxony (1428–1464) and was Landgrave of Thuringia (1440–1445). Biography Frederick was born in Leipzig, th ...

and

William III, Landgrave of Thuringia William III (30 April 1425 – 17 September 1482), called the Brave (in German ''Wilhelm der Tapfere''), was landgrave of Thuringia (from 1445) and claimant duke of Luxemburg (from 1457). He is actually the second William to rule Thuringia, a ...

. The unit was officially abolished by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in 1825, but survived in everyday use until the early 20th century. The term is often incorrectly applied to

Lithuanian long coin The so-called Lithuanian long currency was a type of money used by the Baltic tribes and in the early Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 12th–15th centuries. It was commodity money in the form of silver ingots. Most often they were semicircular r ...

s as earlier researchers believed that the word ''kopa'' was derived from Lithuanian ''kapoti'' (to chop). However, that is likely an example of

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

. The actual etymology is not fully understood.

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= {{cite journal , first=Aleksandras , last=Baltrūnas , url=http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/mg/nr/2001/11/11mat.html , title=Lietuvių liaudies matematika , journal=Mokslo Lietuva , year=2001 , volume=11 , issue=527 , issn=1392-7191 , language=lt , access-date=2014-12-01 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308205800/http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/mg/nr/2001/11/11mat.html , archive-date=2015-03-08 , url-status=dead {{cite book, first=F. W. , last=Carter , title=Trade and Urban Development in Poland: An Economic Geography of Cracow, from Its Origins to 1795 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QA5jmNtYc74C&pg=PA336 , publisher=Cambridge University Press , year=2006 , isbn=9780521024389 , page=336 {{cite journal , first=Dalia , last=Grimalauskaitė , title=Antano Buračo "Pasaulio valiutų ir monetų žinynas": recenzija , url=http://www.lb.lt/grimalauskaite , page=73 , language=lt , journal=Pinigų Studijos , year=2003 , volume=4 , issn=1648-8970 {{cite encyclopedia , first=Eduardas , last=Remecas , title=Kapa , encyclopedia=Lietuva , volume=III , editor-first=Antanas , editor-last=Račis , page=720 , isbn=978-5-420-01707-4 , year=2010 , publisher=

Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras The Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Centre (previously: ''Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute'', or MELC) is a Lithuanian publishing house that specializes in encyclopedias, reference works, and dictionaries. The Institute, head ...

, language=lt {{cite book, first=H. A. , last=Mascher , title=Die Grundsteuer-Regelung in Preußen auf Grund der Gesetze vom 21. Mai 1861 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQYBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA95 , page=95 , publisher=Döring , year=1862 , oclc=758843445 , language=de {{cite book, first1=William Isaac , last1=Thomas , first2=Florian , last2=Znaniecki , title=The Polish Peasant in Europe and America; Monograph of an Immigrant Group , year=1918 , publisher=G. Badger , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JKUMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA299 , page=299 , volume=II , oclc=19374637 Obsolete units of measurement Units of amount History of Lithuania (1219–1569) Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

See also

References