It served as proof that the bearer had paid his yearly beard tax-a few kopecks for peasants, a hundred rubles or more for nobles or military officials. Petersburg, circa 1714, a token like the one above would be your only defense against the overweening power of the state. A beard token, received for paying the Russian beard tax via Wikimedia Commons Petersburg, shaving beards and snipping inches off coats. His inspectors stalked the streets of St. Tsar Peter the Great presided over an actual fashion police.
