Russia 1727KA 5 Kopek Catherine I NGC Fine Details
Nice coin representative of the type. Despite the details grade we feel that the scratches are contemporary.
Composition: Copper
Ruler: Catherine I
Weight:14.9
Diameter:30 mm
https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/2794388-001/NGCDetails/
The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm her origins. Said to have been born April 1684, she was originally named Marta Helena Skowrońska. Marta was the daughter of Samuel Skowroński, a Roman Catholic Lithuanian peasant.
Some biographies state that Marta's father was a gravedigger and handyman, while others speculate that he was a runaway landless serf. Marta's parents died of the plague around 1689, leaving five children. At the age of three Marta was taken by an aunt and sent to Marienburg (the present-day Alūksne in Latvia, near the border with Estonia and Russia) where she was raised by Johann Ernst Glück, a Lutheran pastor, who was the first to translate the Bible into Latvian. In his household she served as a housemaid. No effort was made to teach her to read and write and she remained illiterate throughout her life.
Marta was considered a very beautiful young girl, and there are accounts that Frau Glück became fearful that she would become involved with her son, so at the age of 17, she was married off to a Swedish dragoon, Johan Cruse or Johann Rabbe, with whom she remained for eight days in 1702, at which point the Swedish troops were withdrawn from Marienburg.
When Russian forces captured the town, Pastor Glück offered to work as a translator, and Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev agreed to his proposal and took him to Moscow. There are unsubstantiated stories that Marta worked briefly in the laundry of the victorious regiment, and also that she was presented in her undergarments to Brigadier General Rudolph Felix Bauer, later the Governor of Estonia, to be his mistress. She certainly worked in the household of his superior, Sheremetev. It is not known whether she was his mistress, or household maid.
Afterwards she became part of the household of Prince Alexander Menshikov, who was the best friend of Peter the Great of Russia. Anecdotal sources suggest that she was purchased by him. Whether the two of them were lovers is disputed, as Menshikov was already engaged to Darya Arsenyeva, his future wife. It is clear that Menshikov and Marta formed a lifetime alliance, and it is possible that Menshikov, who was quite jealous of Peter's attentions and knew his tastes, wanted to procure a mistress on whom he could rely. In any case, in 1703, while visiting Menshikov at his home, Peter met Marta, and shortly after that he took her as his own mistress. In 1705, she converted to Orthodoxy and took the new name of Catherine Alexeyevna (Yekaterina Alexeyvna).
Catherine and Peter married secretly in 1707. They had twelve children, two of whom survived into adulthood, Yelizaveta (born 1709) and Anna (born 1708). Peter had moved the capital to St Petersburg in 1703. While the city was being built he lived in a three-room log cabin with Catherine, where she did the cooking and caring for the children, and he tended a garden as though they were an ordinary couple. The relationship was the most successful of Peter's life and a great number of letters exist demonstrating the strong affection between Catherine and Peter. As a person she was very energetic, compassionate, charming and always cheerful. She was able to calm Peter in his frequent rages and was called in to attend him during his epileptic seizures.
Catherine continued to accompany Peter on his Pruth Campaign in 1711. There Catherine was said to have saved Peter and his Empire, as related by Voltaire in his book Peter the Great. Surrounded by overwhelming numbers of Turkish troops, Catherine suggested before surrendering, that her jewels and those of the other women be used in an effort to bribe the Ottoman grand vizier Baltacı Mehmet Pasha into allowing a retreat. Mehmet allowed the retreat, whether motivated by the bribe or considerations of trade and diplomacy. In any case Peter credited Catherine and proceeded to marry her again (this time officially) at Saint Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg on 9 February 1712. Catherine was Peter's second wife; he had previously married and divorced Eudoxia Lopukhina, who had borne him the Tsarevich Alexis Petrovich. Upon their wedding, Catherine took the style of her husband and became Tsarina. When Peter elevated the Russian Tsardom to Empire, Catherine became Empress. The Order of Saint Catherine was instituted by her husband on the occasion of their wedding.
Upon Peter's death, Catherine found her four siblings, Krystyna, Anna, Karol and Fryderyk, gave them the newly created titles of Count and Countess, and brought them to Russia.
Catherine was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia, opening the legal path for a century almost entirely dominated by women, including her daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter-in-law Catherine the Great, all of whom continued Peter the Great's policies in modernizing Russia.