The Coinage Of Alexander III, 1881-1894
At the present time, collectors who think about Imperial Russia under the czars normally bring Nicholas II (1894–1917) to mind as perhaps the best known. Yet the coins struck under the last czar were the direct result of measures undertaken by his father, Alexander III (1881–1894), to reform the Russian monetary system. Alexander was a physical giant, and had the intellectual stamina to carry through those projects that he considered best for the country.
Alexander was born in February 1845, the second son of the future Alexander II. Until he was in his early 20s, however, Alexander was given no special training for becoming emperor because his elder brother, Constantine, was expected to rule in due course. The unexpected death of the heir-apparent, however, thrust the Czarevich Alexander, as he was now known, into the limelight.
Under normal circumstances Alexander might have expected to become emperor in the late 1880s or early 1890s, had his father lived a full life. However, radical revolutionaries determined to assassinate the Czar and did so in March 1881. Alexander III was now Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias.
In a strong reaction to the revolutionary trends then sweeping Russia, Alexander III instituted iron-fisted rule and put an end to the unrest created by the radicals. In
