Siberian fur trade to overhunting. Instead of one sable pelt, the following was accepted as its equivalent: one fox, glutton (relative of the marten), or otter pelt; two blue-fox pelts; sixteen polar-fox pelts; or one hundred squirrel pelts. The Russian government decided the amount of other pelts that were equivalent to the sable pelt. Within forty years, almost all Siberian natives were forced into paying fur tribute to the Russians. Russian traders, hunters, and explorers reached the Pacific coastline by 1650 and were collecting fur tribute from most natives along the coast. Beyond the yasuk, the Russians had two principal ways of obtaining
Marten was typically fashioned into mittens. The marten is still traded locally. The locals place a high value on this pelt, typically trading it for consumable goods. In the Middle Ages, marten pelts were highly valued goods used as a form of payment in Slavonia, the Croatian Littoral, and Dalmatia. The banovac, a coin struck and used between 1235 and 1384, included the image of a marten. This is one of the reasons why the Croatian word for marten, "kuna", is the name of the modern Croatian currency. A marten is depicted on the obverse of the 1-, 2-, and 5-kuna