Re Reply #697: I feel certain that many, many people mistakenly believe the Great Imperial Stete Arms to be the FAMILY "Romanov' 's arms. Regards, AP.
Indeed, and who can blame them. It wasn't untill the 1850s that Alexander II, just like any pretentious bourgeois gentilhomme, ordered his Master Herold to design the Romanov arms, which he duly did, based on a 17th century banner of the first Romanov Tsar's cousin Nikita Ivanovich Romanov!
But I also find it odd that the username Двуглавый орёл, Dvuglavniy orel, Bicephalous Eagle hasn't been used!
And why no Ледяная Коронa,
Ledyanaya Korona, Ice Crown, which is the image the Great Imperial Crown always has evoked in a северянин,
severyanin, Northerner like me.