The Tsar is shown on the obverse bare-headed, facing left. The legend around the edge reads: 'NICOLAUS.I.TOTIUS.ROSSIAE.IMPERATOR.' (Nicolas I, Emperor of All Russia). The reverse augments the explanation thus: 'NICOLAUS I/TOTIUS ROSSIAE/IMPERATOR/REGINAE BRITANNIARUM/VICTORIAE/AMICUS ET HOSPES/1844' (Nicolas I, Emperor of All Russia, friend and guest of Victoria, Queen of the Britains, 1844.) The Tsar, having landed at Woolwich on 1 June 1844, was escorted by Prince Albert to Buckingham Palace the following day, and stayed until 9 June. The timing of the visit was perhaps arranged from the Russian side, since it cannot have been ideal for the Queen to entertain a major guest only two months before she gave birth to her fourth child, Prince Alfred (later Duke of Edinburgh). According to Royal Mint records, fifteen of these medals were struck 'for the Emperor', with a further fourteen struck that autumn. Leonard Charles Wyon was the eldest son of William Wyon, Chief Engraver to the Mint 1828-51. He was appointed Second Engraver in 1843, aged seventeen, and this was one of his earliest pieces, 'in connexion with which he received a graceful letter of thanks from William Ewart Gladstone'. Succeeding as Chief Engraver in 1851, he went on to engrave dies for numerous commemorative and service medals, as well as most of the coins of the British Empire in his forty years in the post.