Certified by NGC to VF Details (Obverse cleaned), cleaning is not distracting from the quality of this coin. Well struck, highly detailed and very pleasing in hand.
Anna was born in Moscow as the daughter of Tsar Ivan V by his wife Praskovia Saltykova. Ivan V was co-ruler of Russia along with his younger half-brother Peter the Great, but he was mentally disabled and incapable of administering the country, and Peter effectively ruled alone. Ivan V died in February 1696, when Anna was only three years old, and her half-uncle became the sole ruler of Russia. In 1730, Tsar Peter II (grandson of Anna's uncle Peter the Great) died childless at a young age. His death rendered extinct the male line of the Romanov dynasty, which had ruled Russia for over a century, since 1613. Anna Ivanovna was regent of the duchy of Courland from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much of her administration was heavily influenced by actions set in motion by her uncle, Peter the Great, such as the continuation of lavish architectural advances in St. Petersburg, continued funding of the Russian Academy of Science, and measures which generally favored the nobility.
