tainin? to classical coins, were formed, probably as 

 educational material, in libraries and universities 

 such as Coimbra and Oporto.'"" 



In St. Petersburg were the impressive collections 

 of the Hermitage, established during the reign of 

 Catherine II (1762-1796). Earlier, Peter the Great 

 (1 689-1 72.S) had been known for his cabinet of 

 antiquities, which included numerous ancient coins 

 and .several hundred contemporary medals."" 

 In his endeavor to raise Russia to the cultural level 

 of other European countries, Peter encouraged the 

 collection of historic and artistic objects. By per- 

 sonal order of the Tsar in January 1722 all Russian 

 coins prior to his reign were to be confiscated from 

 churches, monasteries, and wealthy noblemen and 

 incorporated into the palace collection. (Only the 

 treasures of the Kiev-Petcher monastery remained 

 hidden from Peter; they were discovered in the late 

 nineteenth century.) In 1728, after Peter's death, 

 his collection was desposited for safekeeping with 

 the h'tinstkamer, where it was added to collections 

 left in earlier years by Russian noblemen, such as 

 the early Russian coins of the boyar Peter S. Saltykov, 

 Governor of Kazan. In 1742 the holdings of over 

 28,000 coins of the Kunstkamer were described in 

 an illustrated catalog written in both Russian and 

 German. 



Many other important coin collections were as- 

 sembled in Russia during the late 18th and early 

 19th centuries. The well-organized cabinet of Count 

 Andrei I. Osterman (1686-1747), the most famous 

 Russian statesman during the first half of his century, 

 contained, in addition to outstanding Russian rari- 

 ties, an important series of Chinese coins. This 

 collection was incorporated into the Kunstkamer 

 wliile the cabinet of Count .\. P. Volynsk, which 

 included numerous Asiatic and European coins, 

 was given in 1740 to the .\cademy of .Science.'" 



During the middle of the 19th century, a German, 

 Bernard von Koehne (1817-1885), who acted as a 

 curator of the Hermitage, published a journal, 

 Memoires de la Societe d' Archeologie et de Numismalique de 

 St. Pelersbourg (1874-1852). His special field of atten- 

 tion was the ancient coinage of the Black Sea region. 

 I. G. Spasskii, in his "Notes on the History of Russian 



'"' Batalha Reis, "Muscus e colcccocs publiras" (1946). 



"O.Scc BiKLiAEV, Kabinel Pelra Vrltkago (1800). 



'" SPAS.SKII, ''Ochcrki po istorii russkoi numizmatiki," pp. 



40-12, 52-77. 



Fig. Qg. — .\leksandr Dmitrievhtch Chertkov 

 (1789-1858), Russian numismatist (photo 

 courtesy the Hermitage, Leningrad). 



Numismatics" "^ asserts that Aleksandr D. Chertkov's 

 earlier work on Russian coins, Opisanie drevnikh 

 Russkikh moiwl (1834-1842) , can be considered the 

 first scientific publication in the field of Russian 

 numismatics. In the same period, Baron Stanislav 

 de Chaudoir published a three-volume handbook of 

 Russian coins which is still used, Apcrqit sur les monnaies 

 riisses et sur les monnaies etrangeres qui ont eu cours en 

 Russie (1836-1837). 



Many rare pieces, especially in the ancient field, 

 were purchased for the Russian cabinets. Large and 

 widely diversified collections, containing local finds of 

 ancient coins from the Greek colonies on the shores of 

 the Black .Sea, sprang up in southern Russia. Espe- 

 cially noteworthy were the cabinets in the Odessa 



"-' Ibid. 



36 



BULLETIN 229: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



