This
week’s highlight from our August 2017 Official Auction at the ANA World’s Fair
of Money in Denver, Colorado is an impressive gold coronation medal of Czar
Paul I of Russia. The quantity of
Russian-related medals is quite staggering, as becomes obvious when perusing
the outstanding standard eight-volume reference work “Medals of the Russian
Empire” by Mikhail Diakov. This reference begins with the birth of Peter I (The
Great) in 1672 and covers everything through to the revolution of 1917. So many
medals of various sizes, compositions, engravers and varieties are included in
this massive work that searching for what you are looking for can be daunting. In
this work Diakov has 12 different listings with three major types of coronation
medals of Paul I, only one of which is listed as being struck in gold. That
happens to be a different type from the medal we will offer in August; that
medal bears Paul’s monogram rather than his bust.
Paul
I ascended the throne after his mother, Catherine the Great, died from a stroke
on 17 November 1796. His legitimacy as rightful heir to the throne was in
question and his first act as Emperor was to locate and possibly destroy his
mother’s last will and testament, as he feared that would exclude him from
succession. He was the only son of Peter III whom he resembled quite a bit although
his mother Catherine the Great hinted that her lover Sergei Saltykov also of
Romanov blood had fathered him. The lower classes approved of him, but he was
disliked by the nobility who were annoyed by his policies. This led to a
conspiracy and ultimately his assassination 23 March 1801.
We
are no longer accepting consignments for our August 2017 Official Auction of the
ANA World’s Fair of Money. We are however currently taking consignments of
world and ancient coins and world paper money for our October Collectors Choice
Online (CCO) auction and our January 2018 New York International Numismatic
Convention (NYINC) Auction. If you are interested in consigning your coins and
paper currency (whether a whole collection or a single rarity) be sure to
contact one of our consignment directors.
