 | This 1705 silver ruble features a portrait of Peter the Great, who instituted a new monetary system in Russia. |
A history of Imperial Russia from the reign of Czar Peter I (also known as "Peter the Great") to its demise in 1917 is traced in a small exhibition at the Sterling Memorial Library featuring rubles, kopecks and commemorative medals from the Yale University Art Gallery's Collection of Coins and Medals.
"Coins and Medals of Imperial Russia" -- organized by Tatjana Lorkovic, curator of Slavic and East European Collections at the Yale University Library -- is part of a series of exhibitions and programs at Yale marking the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city of St. Petersburg by Czar Peter I. The exhibition is on view through Friday, Oct. 31, but a related website, www.library.yale.edu/slavic/coins, will remain online indefinitely.
"Among Peter the Great's many initiatives," says 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 adds, "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, it includes 16th-century coins from the reign of Ivan IV, known as "Ivan the Terrible," and a group of bank notes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A highlight of the display is a group of commemorative medals struck to celebrate victories, marriages and Czar Alexander II's liberation of the serfs in 1861.
Coins have been collected at Yale since the early 19th century and an 1863 catalogue lists some 2,400 items. The collection has since grown to about 100,000, making it by far the largest university collection in the United States.
The Sterling Memorial Library, located at 120 High St., is open 8:30 a.m.-midnight, Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m.-midnight Sunday.
T H I S
Exhibit of coins and medals
traces history of imperial Russia
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