WAECHTER,  Georg Christian / KUCHKIN, Mikhail: Russia, 1762/1741, Bronze, 65 mm
Obv: Bust of Catherine II (r) Legend in Cyrillic translated as: " By the Grace of God, Catherine II Empress of All Russia"
Rev: Mercy taking chains off prisoners CLEMENTIA AVGVSTAE (By the Mercy of the Monarch...)
Exergue: NOXIORVM VINCVLIS EXSOLVTIS . MDCCXLI. D. XV. DEC. (...Shackles Removed from Prisoners. 1741,
15 December)
Signed: WÆCHTER. F. (Georg Christian Waechter made it)  /  I.G.W. (Johann Georg Waechter) on left:  "Copied by M. Kuchkin" (in Cyrillic), on right.
Very Rare Mule:  Mule, as struck, is missing from Smirnov and is missing from Diakov. 
Ref: Iversen "Unpublished and Rare Russian Medals,1874";  Obverse as Diakov part 2, 97/119.1: reverse as Diakov part 2, 48/85.3; Weiss BW403

Catherine II (The Great) was Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. In the 18^th century Waechter prepared an obverse die for the medal commemorating the liberation of prisoners by Catherine after she ascended the throne in 1762, but the reverse die was never cut, and no medals were struck. Therefore this bust type is missing from the 1840 edition of "Collection of Russian Medals". In the 19^th century, Iversen found this earlier unknown die and published it in his 1874 edition of "Unpublished and Rare Russian Medals". At the same period some medals were struck from that die in combination with the reverse die of the Liberation of Prisoners by Elizabeth in 1741 (see above). After some mules mentioned above were struck, the Waechter obverse die was passed to the Hermitage collection. That is why it is missing from the Smirnov catalog of 1908 as well, which describes the dies kept at the mint at that period. (from Dmitry Alexandrov)