Kopa ( be, капа́, la, sexagena, lt, kapa, pl, kopa, cz, kopa, uk, копа́) 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 European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

and

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

. 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 ( cz, pražský groš, la, grossi pragenses, german: Prager Groschen, pl, grosz praski) 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 ...

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. History Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history. R ...

after the

Battle of Grunwald The Battle of Grunwald, Battle of Žalgiris or First Battle of Tannenberg 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 respec ...

were counted in kopas of Prague groschen; the 16th-century treasury of the Grand Duchy was counted in kopas of Lithuanian groschens. 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 ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 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, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He w ...

(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 Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...

groschen 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 ...

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, and ...

. The unit was officially abolished by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

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 ro ...

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 popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

. 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'', lt, Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras or MELC) is a Lithuanian publishing house that specializes in encyclopedias, reference ...

, 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