When Peter III became czar of all the Russias in late December 1761, one of his first acts was to revise the weight standard under which copper coins were struck. There had been several changes in the 1750s, but in 1757 Empress Elizabeth I had finally decided upon 16 rubles to the pood (16.38 kilograms) and this standard had been maintained until her death; in January 1762 Peter made the standard 32 rubles.
The 16-ruble standard meant that 1,600 one-kopeck coins would be struck from a pood of copper. The change under Peter III in 1762 then allowed for 3,200 kopeck coins to be made from a pood of metal.
Peter III was overthrown by his wife Catherine in late June 1762; he died, very conveniently, a few days later. One contemporary wit said that she was a “self-made widow,” which was pretty close to the mark. It was one of the few times in recorded history that a husband or wife overthrew the other to become ruler. By late in 1762 Catherine II and her advisors decided that the nation ought to return to the 16-ruble standard adopted under Elizabeth in 1757.
Catherine's first coinage under the new standard came in early 1763, when the edict was formally signed. For the first few
