Fascinating post!
It does seem a lot of trouble for a coin of full value. But what if there was a concern that the value of copper might decline in the future, making the counterfeiting of this type profitable? Perhaps the authorities might want some way to distinguish the counterfeit coins from the real ones if that happened. Russia was flooded with counterfeit copper in the 1720s, which is why the overstriking in the 1730s took place. When considered in that context, the use of such templates does not seem so strange.