When Catherine II seized the throne from her husband Peter III at the end of June 1762, it was to take some weeks before all of the machinery of government was in working order. One of the most important decisions, made at an early date, was to keep unchanged the weight and fineness adopted for the silver coinage earlier by Peter in 1762.
Peter III and his financial advisors had been faced with necessary changes in the silver coinage as a result of expenses that came about during the Seven Year’s War against Prussia. In March 1731, the Empress Anna had set the purity of the silver coinage at 77 (i.e. 77/96) or 802/1000. The weight of the silver ruble was fixed, in modern terms, at 25.85 grams by Anna with the other denominations in proportion. (In 1741, and again in 1746, changes were made to the weight and fineness of the 10 kopecks.)
The imperial ukase on silver coinage, signed by Peter III on Jan. 17, 1762, had reduced the gross weight of the ruble to 24 grams and made the fineness 72 (.750) in place of the 77 standard established in 1731. In terms of pure silver, the weight of the ruble declined from 20.73 grams to 18 grams, a loss of just over 13 percent. The poltina (50 kopecks or half ruble) and lesser
