Catherine the Great 1776: Russian Five Kopek in NGC-Certified Slab Boxed Coin Collection (High grade)

Catherine II (b. 1729), Empress of Russia from 1767-1796, presided over the Golden Age of the Russian Empire. At the time of her reign, Catherine was not just the most powerful woman in the world, but the most powerful woman who had ever lived.  No other female ruler—not Queen Elizabeth I, not Eleanor of Aquitaine, not even Cleopatra—wielded as much control over as many subjects or as much territory.   Born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg in 1729, a German-speaking Prussian princess, Catherine assumed the throne upon the death of her husband, Tsar Peter III, under mysterious circumstances. A prodigious lover and canny tsarina, Catherine was a formidable presence, both within her empire and beyond. Her sweeping reforms revitalized the country, turning Russia into a force to be reckoned with. She was, in every way, Catherine the Great.  She played a quiet but vital role in the American Revolution, which she predicted would succeed as early as 1776. “The colonies,” sh