1 Kopeck - Ekaterina II Novodel

Novodels — official restrike specimens produced at the St. Petersburg mint for collectors and diplomats — were sanctioned throughout the late Imperial period as a matter of policy rather than accident. This particular piece replicates a type from the final year of Catherine II's reign, a year that also saw the accession of Paul I, who immediately set about dismantling his mother's coinage reforms, including her lightweight copper standards. The original 1796 circulation issues are themselves contentious, struck during a transitional moment before Paul's sweeping monetary reorganization took hold.

Bit#952 places this firmly within Bitkin's novodel classification sequence.