Found: A Coin That Stopped the Tsar’s Police From Shaving You

(via Atlas Obscura) They might be scratching their chins in surprise. Archaeologists in Russia have recently stumbled upon a 1699 coin issued to mark compliance with the “Beard Tax,” which Tsar Peter the Great had introduced the year before. The beard tax policy required men who wished to keep their beards to pay up—or be shaved by the police