The Hermitage guide

One of the unique coins is the so-called Konstantin rouble. Since Tsar Alexander I died leaving no sons or grandsons, his oldest brother, Grand Duke Konstantin, was his logical successor. But Konstantin renounced his rights to the throne and Alexander’s third brother Nicholas became Emperor of Russia. In the meantime, in November — first half of December 1825, the St Petersburg Mint struck seven coins with the name of the heir presumptive, i.e. Konstantin. Two coins found their way to the collection of the famous numismatist J. Reichel, while the remaining five, with three pairs of stamps and trial tin impressions from them, were preserved in the Secret Archives of the Ministry of Finance until 1879. As the Konstantin roubles were minted in the time of the Decembrist Rebellion of 24 December 1825, they quickly became the subject of all sorts of legends, and even fakes appeared. Since then increasingly higher prices have been asked for these roubles. Thus, one of them was recently auctioned for 70,000 francs in Switzerland.

The same section contains a notable collection of Russian silver pay ingots, as well as several interesting hoards.

The section of medals, orders and badges numbers over 60,000 items, including 48,000 Russian and foreign medals. The Hermitage prides itself on the Italian Renaissance medals by Antonio Pisano, Matteo de Pasti, Nicolò Fiorentino, Leone Leoni, and Benvenuto Cellini. There are also about 11,000 works by German medal artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, Hans Schwarz and Friedrich Hagenhauer. The following figures may give some idea of the wealth and variety of the collection: it contains 6,000 French medals, 1,200 Netherlandish, over 2,200 Polish, about 1,200 English, 1,000 Swedish and Danish, 800 Austrian, and about 800 works of South and North American origin. The collection of Russian medals is of course especially representative, as that of medals devoted to events of Russian history and issued in Western Europe; there are more than 1,200 gold and platinum medals alone. Among the Russian medals of the eighteenth century (over 2,100 items), the works by Philipp Heinrich Müller, Christian Wermuth, Fiodor Alexeyev, Johann Georg Waechter, Timofei Ivanov, Samuil Yudin, and Johann Balthasar Gass deserve particular attention.

The Numismatic Department also houses numerous Russian, Western European and Oriental seals and signet rings, including Russian pendant seals of the tenth to fifteenth centuries and Russian signet rings of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Of great interest are the designs on the Drohiczyn seals of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. What these seals were intended for remains an open question; some scholars presume they served as trade seals, others believe they were used for sealing up sheaves of pelts, the so-called fur-money.

Since its establishment, in addition to its main function as a repository of art treasures, the Department has been an important research centre of scientific activities in numismatics.

V. Potin

191

Silver decadrachm

Sicily, Syracuse. 5th century B.C.

192

Gold stater

Bosporus, Panticapaeum. 4th century B.C.

193

Double gold dinar of Hormizd II (303—309)

Sassanian Iran

194

Copper 40-nummi piece

The Ostrogothic Kingdom. 6th century

195

Gold medallion (8 solidi) of Constance II (337—361)

Rome

196

Silver denarius (bracteate) of Albrecht I the Bear (1134—1170)

Brandenburg

197

Gold tagekhan of Leon I (1198—1219)

Cilician Armenia. Rubenid

198

Bronze medal of Matteo de Pasti (1420—?), struck in honour of Izotta

Rimini, Italy

199

Four silver testones of Philibert II (1497—1504)

Italy, Savoy

200

Ten gold ducats of Stephen Bathory (1576—1586)

Poland. 1580

201

Star of the Order of St Andrew the First-Called with the ribbon of the Order of the Garter

Russia. Early 19th century

202

Silver srebrianik of Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich (1019—1054)

Russia

203

Silver rouble of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645—1676)

Russia. 1654

204

Double gold chervonets (ten-rouble coin) of Peter the Great (1682—1725)

Russia

205, 206

Alexander Rukavishnikov. Born 1950

Bronze medal “In Commemoration of the First Space Flight”. The Soviet Union. 1976

ЭРМИТАЖ

Альбом-путеводитель (па английском языке)

Автор вводной статьи Б. Б. Пиотровский

Авторы-составители Б. И. Асварищ, А. В. Банк, В. Н. Васильев, К. С. Горбунова, Г. Н. Комелова, В. Г. Луконин, В. М. Потин, И. Г. Саверкина, Г. И. Смирнова

Перевод с русского В. Г. Визи, Ю. С. Памфилова

Художники Ю. И. и Г. Л. Дышленко

Редактор Н. И. Василевская

Редакторы английского текста Э. Г. Андреева, Ю. С. Памфилов

Художественный редактор С. М. Малахов

Технические редакторы Н. К. Соколова, Т. Д. Поликарпова

Корректор Е. Ю. Харькова