Russia, Imperial. A Medal For The Peace Of Nystad 1721

In white metal, obverse illustrating Noah's Ark on a wave-covered sea, the sky above with clouds throughout, a dove flying to the left and carrying an olive branch in its beak, with cityscapes on either side of the sea, the city at the left identified as "St PETERSBURG", the city at the right identified as "STOCKHOLM", a rainbow linking the two cities and inscribed in Latin "CONCORDI PACE LIGAMUR" above the rainbow and "NeopoLI / pos be LLIInseptentrione / DILVVIVM" below the seascape, reverse inscribed in Latin "M.O.P.F. / principi / PETRO.I. / Nomine ey factis stupendis / MAGNO / Russorum Imperatori / PATRIQUE / Post vicennales triumphos / SEPTENTRIONIS PACATORI / hoc ex auro vernaculo / Numisma / D. D.", measuring 61 mm in diameter, light contact and surface wear, with some of the raised letters identifying the two cities having worn off, very fine.

Footnote: The Treaty of Nystad was the last peace treaty of the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. It was concluded between the Tsardom of Russia and the Swedish Empire on September 10, 1721 in the then Swedish town of Nystad (present-day Finland). Sweden had settled with the other parties in Stockholm (1719 and 1720) and in Frederiksborg (1720).

During the war, Tsar Peter I of Russia had occupied all Swedish possessions on the eastern Baltic coast: Swedish Ingria (where he began to build the soon-to-be new Russian capital of St. Petersburg in 1703), Swedish Estonia and Swedish Livonia (which had capitulated in 1710), and Finland. In Nystad, King Frederick I of Sweden formally recognized the transfer of Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, and Southeast Finland (Kexholmslän and part of Karelian Isthmus) to Russia in exchange for two million silver thaler, while Russia returned the bulk of Finland to Swedish rule. The Treaty enshrined the rights of the German Baltic nobility within Estonia and Livonia to maintain their financial system, their existing customs border, their self-government, their Lutheran religion, and the German language; this special position in the Russian Empire was re-confirmed by all Russian Tsars from Peter the Great (reign: 1682-1725) to Alexander II (reign: 1855-1881).

Nystad manifested the decisive shift in the European balance of power, which the war had brought about: the Swedish imperial era had ended; Sweden entered the Age of Liberty, while Russia had emerged as a new empire.