Elizabeth chose Carl Peter Ulrich, the son of her late sister Anna Petrovna, as her successor. He is known to history as Peter III. Peter III’s first act upon accession was to make a humiliating peace with Frederick the Great of Prussia. Peter III’s wife Catherine, with the help of the Orlov brothers (one of whom was Catherine’s paramour) and with the support of the Russian nobility, dethroned him. Soon afterwards the Orlovs murdered Peter III.

During Peter’s short six-month reign, Count Peter Shuvalov’s scheme of raising money for the government, by reducing by half the metal content of the existing copper coinage, was quickly implemented. 150 million copper coins were over-struck (putting a new image with new denominations over the old coinage), doubling their value.