Watch List notes:

† - Russia, Peter I, the Great, poltina (half rouble), authenticated and graded by NGC as About Uncirculated 55, dated 1702 in Cyrillic, bust r. draped and cuirassed with elaborate flowing laurel through hair, rev. crowned double-headed eagle holding sceptre and orb in its talons (KM.106.1; Bit.515; Sev.61), , rare and especially so in this enchanting condition, with bold details and a wonderful portrait, enhanced by most pleasing two-tone silvery grey surfaces. It has been said many times that modern Russia was founded when Peter the Great died in 1725. Nor has his personal impression on Russian history faded over the centuries. He stood nearly seven feet tall, a powerful man of seemingly boundless energy, and yet his physical stature was but a reflection of the extraordinary legacy he left. His accomplishments are legendary. Blessed with an amazing ability to learn, he personally directed numerous state matters, was a highly accomplished military and naval commander, mastered more than twenty trades (from dentist and shoemaker to shipbuilder), travelled throughout Muscovy and visited the West twice to pursue knowledge and instituted the Christian calendar throughout Russia. He ruled with an iron will and a dedication to work that flustered all around him, and could be violently temperamental (especially with those who failed to live up to his own standards), overtly crude, and even cruel - he personally executed traitors, pulled the teeth of friends at court, was alternately blasphemous and amorous in the extreme, and drank liquor with the most hardened soldier. Because war was almost constant in the Russia of his day, Peter devised war games. His victories in the Great Northern War gave Russia ice-free ports for its navy. Peter established the famous dockyards of Archangel, and in 1703 the city of St. Petersburg. In 1708, he vanquished a Cossack rebellion which had spread throughout southern Russia. And finally his armies destroyed the Swedish army, one of the most feared in all Europe, in 1709 in the Battle of Poltava, one of the most decisive in history, where Peter himself led his troops into battle and, luckily, somehow escaped injury. The victory gave the Baltic to Russia, was the reason his parliament declared Peter 'The Great', and established Russia as a major power. The constant warfare meant, however, that Peter was forced to tax almost everything imaginable, from beehives to beards, in order to defend the nation, earning him the hatred of many of his subjects. Nor did he garner much love from his son, busy as he was modernising Russian government and the Russian military. He died in February 1725, worn out by his lifestyle, losing consciousness just moments after naming his own heir to the throne of Russia under the new law of succession that he himself had declared. (£28000 - 32000)