Peter III., on his accession to the throne in 1762,
intended to strengthen the laws of his predecessors, and prepared some
stringent measures; but his sudden death prevented them from being put
into force. His widow, Catherine II. (1762), did not share his feelings
in this matter, and immediately on obtaining sovereign power she removed
every restriction relating to the beard. She invited the Raskolnicks,
who had fled from the country to avoid the objectionable edicts, to
return, and assigned land to them for their settlement.
[Illustration: Russian Beard Token, A.D. 1705.]
During thirty-eight years in Russia, the beard-token or Borodoraia (the
bearded), as it was called, was in use. As we write we have one of these
tokens before us, and on one side are represented a nose, mouth,
moustaches, and a large flowing beard, with the inscription "dinge
vsatia," which means "money received"; the reverse bears the year in
Russian characters (equivalent to "1705 year"), and the black eagle of
the empire.
Our facts are mainly drawn from a paper by Mr Walter Hawkins in the
"Numismatic Chronicle," volume vii.
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