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
ИБ № 1153. Сдано в набор 09.03.81. Подписано в печать 23.10.81. Формат 60x841/16. Бумага мелованная. Гарнитура обыкновенная. Печать высокая. Усл. печ л. 17,21. Уч.-изд. л. 15,59. Тираж 65 000. Заказ 6104. Изд. № 2814. Цена 3 р. 90 к. Издательство «Аврора». 191065, Ленинград, Невский пр., 7/9. Ордена Трудового Красного Знамени ленинградская типография № 3 имени Ивана Федорова Союзполиграфпрома при Государственном комитете СССР по делам издательств, полиграфии и книжной торговли. 191126, Ленинград, Звенигородская ул., 11
