Imperial Russian Coins And Medals On View At Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library

NEW HAVEN — A history of Imperial Russia from the reign of Peter I, “the Great,” to its demise in 1917 is succinctly traced in a small exhibition of rubles, kopecks and commemorative medals from Yale University Art Gallery’s collection of coins and medals, currently on view at Sterling Memorial Library.

Organized by Tatjana Lorkovic, curator of Slavic and East European collections, Yale University Library, “Coins and Medals of Imperial Russia” is one of a series of exhibitions and programs at Yale marking the 300th anniversary of Czar Peter’s founding of the city of St Petersburg. The exhibition is on view through October 31, but the website, www.library.yale.edu/Slavic/coins will remain up indefinitely.

“Among Peter the Great’s many initiatives,” said Ms Lorkovic, “was the institution in 1704 of a new monetary system based on 100 copper kopecks to the silver ruble, a decimal system far in advance of that of other countries.

“We are fortunate,” she noted, “to have in Yale’s collection a silver ruble with Peter the Great’s portrait from 1705, only a year into the new system. From then on every czar is represented with his or her portrait on a coin, even those whose reigns were cut short after less than a year.”

While the focus of the exhibition is the period from 1703 to 1917, 16th Century coins from the reign of Ivan IV, known as “the Terrible,” open the exhibition and a group of bank notes from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries closes it. A highlight is a group of commemorative medals struck to celebrate victories, marriages and, in 1861, Czar Alexander II’s liberation of the serfs.

Coins have been collected at Yale since the early 19th Century. An 1863 catalog published by the gallery lists 2,400 items, a number that has grown to about 100,000 pieces, making it by far the largest university collection in the United States. Many of the 600 Imperial Russian coins are on view in this exhibition.

The collection will continue to be housed at the library until the completion of Yale University Art Gallery’s renovation and restoration, projected to continue until spring 2005.

Sterling Memorial Library is at 120 High Street. For information call 203-432-2798 or visit www.library.yale.edu.