Zolotnik (zol)

Russian (Imperial)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)

One 96th of a funt, about 4.266 g. A Russian unit used for gold and silver.

1 zolotnik = 0.004265803958 kilograms (approximately).

About the zolotnik

Zolotnik means the golden one. The name goes back to a coin that circulated in Kievan Rus until the 11th century and weighed about the same as the Byzantine solidus. As a unit it was in use from roughly the 10th century to the 20th, and it became the standard for working silver, much as the troy ounce serves precious metals elsewhere.

In the later Russian system it was one 96th of a funt, which gives about 4.2658 g, or roughly 65.8 grains. The same system split the zolotnik into 96 dolya, and three zolotniks made a lot, so the funt, lot, zolotnik and dolya formed a neat ladder of fine divisions.

Apothecaries used a lighter pound of 84 zolotniks, so the unit sometimes appears under different totals in pharmacy texts. It was retired with the other old Russian weights after 1918.

Sources: Wikipedia: Zolotnik; Wikipedia: Obsolete Russian units of measurement

Zolotnik conversion chart

1 zolotnik expressed in every other weight & mass unit:

More Russian (Imperial) units

• funt (Russian pound) (weight & mass)
• pood (weight & mass)
• vershok (length)
• arshin (length)
• sazhen (length)
• verst (length)
• charka (volume)
• shtof (volume)
• vedro (volume)

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