Russia (Sestroretsk mint) 2 Kopecks 1757 - Elizabeth I (1741-1762)

18.46g. XF/XF+. An outstanding example for its well-preserved relief and appealing yellowish patina. Despite the type’s general availability, pieces in this level of preservation are exceptionally uncommon. 

Bitkin 544. 

The Sestroretsk Mint emerged in the reign of Empress Elizabeth as a “satellite” copper facility attached to the local arms factories under the Main Chancellery of Artillery and Fortifications. Its creation was driven by the chronic shortage of small coin and the need to support active monetary circulation in and around the capital without overloading the main mints in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg. In 1756, following a proposal by Count Petr Ivanovich Shuvalov, general feldzeugmeister and head of the artillery, the government authorized the large-scale conversion of obsolete and captured bronze cannon - “all manner of guns and other pieces, except memorial items”-into copper coin at Sestroretsk. 

After a Senate decree of October 1756 and subsequent orders from the Mint Chancellery, equipment and skilled staff were transferred from the Moscow and St. Petersburg mints, and by the spring of 1757 the Sestroretsk Mint began regular operations. The copper was coined on a new, “doubled” standard of 16 rubles per pood, intended to expand the money supply and finance artillery and engineering needs. An Artillery Bank was even created to channel the proceeds from this conversion into the upkeep of the imperial artillery park and related corps. In practice, however, the results fell short of expectations: from roughly 8,000 poods of cannon metal allocated from Moscow and St. Petersburg, only about 540,600 rubles in coin were produced in 1757-1758. Part of the metal was later recalled for renewed gun founding, especially after the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, and by 1759 the mint’s activity had effectively ground to a halt. 

In the Elizabethan period the Sestroretsk issues did not carry a distinctive mintmark and were visually absorbed into the general mass of Russian copper coinage, though their slightly different color and alloy-reflecting the use of cannon bronze—can sometimes be noted. Within the broader history of Russian monetary policy, the Sestroretsk Mint of the 1750s stands as an experiment at the intersection of fiscal necessity, artillery logistics, and regional coin production in the territories corresponding to present-day Russia (Sestroretsk now forming part of the St. Petersburg urban area).