Russia Bronze Medal 1754 - Birth of Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, 20 September 1754 - Elizabeth I (1741–1762)

100.23g. 64mm. UNC/UNC. 

St. Petersburg mint. 

Medaliers: G. Wächter (G • WÆCHTER • F below truncation); Yudin (Ю under altar). 

Diakov 97.1 (Ae - R1). 

Medals with obverses by Wächter are encountered far less frequently than those by Timofey Ivanov. 

Very rare. 

Obv.: Bust of Empress Elizabeth I right, crowned with the Imperial crown and draped in mantle. Below truncation, engraver’s signature. 

Inscription around: 

D • G • ELISABETA • AVGVSTA • OMN • ROSS • 

(Elizabeth Augusta, by the Grace of God Empress of All Russia). 

Rev.: Before an altar and a shield bearing the Russian coat of arms, a kneeling female figure representing Russia prepares to receive the newborn Grand Duke Paul, seated on a cloud in the arms of a genius holding a scepter. At left below the altar, engraver’s initial. 

Inscription: 

IN VOTVM VENIT 

(It comes as a vow fulfilled). 

In exergue: 

PAULO • PRINCIPE • IUYEN • | NATO • D • XX • SEPT • | MDCCLIV 

(Birth of the heir to the throne, Prince Paul, 20 September 1754). 

Paul Petrovich (1754-1801), later Emperor Paul I of Russia, was the son of Peter III and Catherine II (Catherine the Great). He spent much of his early life under the shadow of his mother’s reign, remaining largely excluded from state affairs until her death. Paul ascended the throne in 1796 and ruled until 1801. 

His reign was marked by attempts to restore strict order and discipline in both the military and civil administration. He introduced a new law of succession establishing clear hereditary rules for the Russian throne, aiming to prevent palace coups like those that had shaped earlier imperial successions. Paul also pursued a complex and often shifting foreign policy during the period of the French Revolutionary Wars. 

His rule was widely regarded as rigid and unpredictable, and dissatisfaction among the nobility and military elites grew rapidly. In 1801, Paul I was assassinated in a palace coup in St. Petersburg, after which his son ascended the throne as Alexander I.