It was displayed prominently next to Nicholas II on a cushion at the State Opening of the Russian Duma inside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 1906.

It survived the 1917 revolution and ensuing civil war and is currently on display in Moscow at the Kremlin Armoury's State Diamond Fund.

In 1719, Tsar Peter the Great founded the earliest version of what is now known as the Russian Federation's State Diamond Fund.

Peter had visited other European nations, and introduced many innovations to Russia, one of which was the creation of a permanent fund (фонд) to house a collection of jewels that belonged not to the Romanov family, but to the Russian State.

The crown is also decorated with one of the seven historic stones of the Russian Diamond Collection: a large precious red spinel weighing 398.72 carats (79.744 g), known as the Menshikov Ruby, which was bought in China in 1702 by the Nerchinsk merchant Yan Istopnikov.

At the center and apex of the central arch is a diamond rosette of twelve petals from which rises a large red spinel, weighing 398.72 carats (79.744 grams), one of the seven historic stones of the Russian Diamond Collection, which was brought to Russia by Nicholas Spafary, the Russian envoy to China from 1675 to 1678.

There was also a lesser imperial crown, very similar in style and workmanship, only smaller and entirely set with diamonds, made for Empress Maria Feodorovna, the consort of Paul I, and used for the coronation of the Tsarina.

[11] Rising tensions and the outbreak of the First World War put a stop to further work, and the regalia items were loaded into nine strong-boxes and sent from Saint Petersburg to Moscow for safekeeping.

The experts advised against selling such pieces as the crown, orb and sceptre, arguing that they were unlikely to attract their historic worth.

The most notable example is the coat of arms of Saint Petersburg, which not only depicts the crown on top of it but two imperial sceptres in saltire behind it, and a third on it.