Medal of 12 Ducat weight. GOLD. 42 mm. 41.67 gm. By O. Kalashnikov. On the Coronation of Catherine I, 1724
. Diakov 60.4 (R4), Reichel 1483, Iversen LV – 1b, Tiregal 67, Sm--. Conjoined busts of Peter I, laureate, armored and draped, and Catherine, diademed and draped, right; initials OK on truncation; ПETPЪ IMПEPATOPЪ * EKATEPИHA IMПEPATPИЦA / Peter, standing right, crowning Catherine, who curtsies before him; KOPOHOBAHA BMOCKBѢ. Extremely rare, issued during the lifetime of Peter the Great. A few old thin test scrapes in reverse field. About extremely fine

Ex Baldwin’s Auctions # 9, London, UK, October 7-8, 1996, lot 721

Born Marta Helena Skowrónska in 1684 to a peasant couple in Courland, Catherine I was, as Voltaire tells us, nearly as extraordinary as Peter I himself. Catherine’s parents died of the plague when she was five, leaving her and her four siblings orphans. The vicissitudes of life brought Marta into the household service of Prince Alexander Menshikov. Visiting his close friend Menshikov in 1703, Peter the Great was much taken by the lovely Marta and by next year she was fully established as his mistress. In 1705, Marta converted to Orthodoxy, taking the new name Catherine Alexeyevna. Peter and Catherine were secretly married in 1707, and she would bear him 12 children (though only two who survive into adulthood). An energetic, charming, compassionate and cheerful woman, Catherine calmed Peter in his frequent rages and attended to him during his epileptic seizures. In 1711, she saved the Russian empire, when she went with Peter on the Pruth campaign. Peter and his men were surrounded by overwhelming Turkish forces. Thinking quickly Catherine offered her jewelry and the jewelry of the other women who had accompanied their men as a bribe to the Turkish vizier Baltaci Mehmet Pasha. Peter and the Russian forces were allowed to retreat. On February 9, 1712, Peter officially married Catherine at St. Isaac’s Cathedral. She was officially crowned Empress of all Russia in 1724. On the death of Peter in 1725, Catherine became the first woman to rule Imperial Russia.