The Coinage Of Paul I, 1796–1801

Although Russian Czar Paul I reigned for only about four and one-half years, from November 1796 to March 1801, it would be a time long remembered by his subjects. His bizarre behavior earned him enemies at nearly every turn and in the end he was murdered by an officer clique.

Paul was born in September 1754 at St. Petersburg, and was the son of Czarevich Peter and his wife, Catherine. The parents were notoriously unfaithful to each other, Catherine having had other children by one of her lovers, but most historians today incline towards Peter being the father of Paul; father and son were strikingly similar, being both erratic and irrational.

Paul’s childhood was traumatic and no doubt warped his already unstable personality. In late December 1761, the Empress Elizabeth died and was succeeded by the Czarevich, now Peter III, but in June 1762 Catherine overthrew her husband and had him conveniently strangled a short time later. The new empress was to rule Russia with an iron hand for 34 years, until her death in November 1796. In the meantime, Paul was virtually ignored and shuttled off to tutors; the less his mother saw of him the better in her eyes and the son reciprocated this dislike, intently.

In 1773