Award Medal for the Deputies of the 1766 Commission to Develop a New Civil Code, 1766. GOLD. Oval, 35.3 x 41.5mm. 35.4 gm (10 Ducat weight). Bit 415 (R4). Cipher of Catherine II / Crowned pyramid, legend ends: IBCEXЪ Of the Greatest Rarity. Only 569 medals were awarded with the overwhelming majority returned to the treasury after the death of the recipient. Only a handful of these medals survived, so this offering provides an extraordinary opportunity for collectors. A few minor edge tics. Extremely fine. Estimated Value $75,000 - UP
Believing that by strengthening the law and institutions, the monarchy was strengthened, Catherine the Great in 1764 set about writing an instructive manuscript (Nakaz) to modernize Russia’s legal code. Influenced by the French Enlightenment, her Instruction proclaimed the equality of all men before the law and disapproved of the death penalty and of torture. But although her writing drew heavily on the ideas of the Enlightenment, Catherine’s ultimate purpose was to fortify autocracy and the Nakaz emphatically upheld absolutism. A Commission was organized to draft a new legal code, and in 1767 an All-Russia Legislative Commission was convened for the purpose of replacing the mid-17th Century Muscovite code of laws with a modern law code.
Ex Dmitry Markov Coins & Medals Auction 6, New York, Dec. 9-10, 1998, lot 1005.