This box is mounted with a medal celebrating the coronation of Catherine II, Empress of Russia, in 1762. The decoration of the box is in niello, a black mixture of silver, lead, copper and sulphur which is used to fill engraved decoration to provide a contrast with silver or silver-gilt. It is one of the most characteristic means of decoration on Russian boxes. The trophies, the scrolls and shellwork are in the rococo style which in most parts of Europe went out of fashion during the 1760s.

Catherine II and her supporters seized the throne in 1762 from her unpopular husband Peter III who had humiliated her. He was murdered shortly afterwards when in the company of her lover's brother. Her elaborate coronation in Moscow was a triumphant assertion of her claim to the throne in preference to acting as regent for her son, Paul, or to the claims of Ivan VI who had been deposed as an infant in 1741. The reverse of the medal shows Faith and Russia beneath a figure of Providence holding the crown and sceptre. If Providence had a hand in matters, the outcome owed much to the nerve and determination of Catherine who famously donned the uniform of one of the regiments of guards when she made her bid for power.