2 Para / 3 Kopecks Pattern

In 1771, Russia occupied Moldavia and Wallachia during the Russo-Turkish War, and Catherine II briefly attempted to introduce a dual-denomination coinage for the occupied territories — coins reading in both Para (Ottoman currency) and Kopecks simultaneously. The 2 Para / 3 Kopecks series was part of this short-lived Danubian monetary experiment, intended to ease transactions across a currency boundary that Catherine expected to redraw permanently.

She never did. The war ended with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774, the occupied principalities remained Ottoman vassals, and the dual coinage project was abandoned. This 1773 piece is a pattern — it never circulated.