Tickets

Generous Donation: Gold Two-Rouble Coin Completes Series

15.11.2017
Bode-Museum

Wladimir Matwejew has enriched the Münzkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin with a valuable piece: his donation of a gold two-rouble coin of Catherine the Great completes the collection of coins from the Russian tsarina’s reign.

The Münzkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin displays a series of coins minted under the Russian Empress Catherine II in its permanent exhibition. Until now the collection included 14 of the 15 coins minted during Catherine’s reign. The last missing piece was presented to Hermann Parzinger, president of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, on 8 November 2017 by the ambassador in Frankfurt, Wladimir Matwejew. Thanks to this generous donation the coin series is now complete.

The two-rouble coin was minted in 1785 in St. Petersburg. The obverse displays the face of the Russian empress, as well as the initials of the mint in St. Petersburg. The reverse bears the crowned double-headed eagle, emblem of the tsars, holding the sceptre and imperial orb in its talons. The coin weighs 2.49 grams, and is the last two-rouble coin minted under the Russian Empire.

Catharine II was born Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst in Stettin, daughter of a Prussian general. At sixteen she married the Russian Tsar, and succeeded him to the throne after his death. She ruled the Russian Empire from 1762 to 1796, and developed Russia into a European superpower.