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AE 5 Kopeck
Struck: 1790 (89 overdate)
Mint: Ekaterinburg
Size: 41mm
Weight: 45g
Die Axis: 0°
Grade: gVF
Ref: Bitkin 644; KM 59.3
Obv: Crowned double-headed imperial eagle with scepter and orb, St. George arms on breast.
Rev: Crowned monogram and date within laurel and palm wreath.
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Yekaterina Alexeevna was born on April 21, 1729 in Stettin, Prussia and was the ruler of Russia from July 9, 1762 to November 17, 1796. Catherine the Great was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia. Catherine came to power following a coup d'état and the assassination of her husband, Peter III, at the end of the Seven Years' War. Russia was revitalized under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognized as one of the great powers of Europe.
Catherine governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was crushed following victories over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish wars, and Russia colonized the vast territories of Novorossiya along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the west, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover, king Stanislaw August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. In the east, Russia started to colonize Alaska, establishing Russian America.
Catherine instituted many social educational reforms during her administration, and many new cities and towns were founded on her orders. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernize Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and economy continued to depend on serfdom and this was one of the main causes behind several rebellions. Catherine’s rule is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire. A notable example of an enlightened despot, a correspondent of Voltaire and an amateur opera librettist, Catherine presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.
Catherine suffered a massive stroke on November 16, 1796 and died the following evening.
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