10 Roubles Kostroma

Kostroma was chosen for this 2002 bimetallic series partly on the strength of its historical claim as the city where Mikhail Romanov was persuaded to accept the tsardom in 1613, effectively founding the dynasty that ruled Russia for the next three centuries. The Ipatiev Monastery there remains one of the most politically loaded religious sites in Russian history.

The series of which this piece is part — Ancient Towns of Russia — ran for years and produced enough varieties to sustain a dedicated collector subspecialty in its own right.