The Coinage of Nicholas II, 1894–1917
With the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union in 1990, the emergence of Russia as the successor state created an interest in many people about the Czarist past. Collectors at home and abroad began to acquire coins from the Imperial days and the first choice was invariably the coins of Nicholas II (1894–1917), the last emperor. His was a time of war and revolution and the end of the Empire. Moreover, the tragic deaths of the Imperial family in 1918 have long evoked sympathy throughout the world.
Nicholas was born in May 1868, the son of future Emperor Alexander III; there was little prospect of his coming to the throne at an early age because his grandfather, Alexander II, was then emperor and only 50 years old. However, Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 and Alexander III died prematurely in November 1894; the new czar was now Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias.
Alexander III was an iron-fisted ruler, yet he generally adhered to the normal rules of the civilized Western world. Nicholas II, on the other hand, wavered between strength and weakness; when resolute action was needed one never knew how he would react.
Nicholas ruled for only the last few weeks of 1894 but the Imperial Mint at St. Petersburg was still able to
