The Gold Chervonets
Returning to the sources
At Saint-Petersburg Mint there is preparation for minting medals of the times of Peter I, devoted to Northern War, more exactly, the copies of the medals of Peter"s time.
The planned series consists of 28 medals.
The first medal, "Foundation of Petersburg", was produced last year, for the 300th jubilee of the city.
In Europe the first medal appeared in XVII century. They were given as gifts to rulers of neighboring countries. During the period of Great embassy Peter I paid attention to the tradition and, after coming back to Russia, decided to start minting own medals. He began with immortalizing the events of Northern War. The comrade of the tsar Y.Brus, the most knowledgeable in numismatics, made an agreement with the famous Augsburg medal-maker F.G.Muller.
Muller should have made stamps for the series of medals, devoted to the events of Northern War. On the facial side of all medals Peter I was decided to represent. With this purpose Muller created three variants of the tsar"s portrait. All these portraits differed by sculptural manner of representation, rich decor and careful working out the details.
On the back sides there were representations of battles and also views of the cities, taken by Russian army. For working over the drafts the medal-maker had got from Russia "Mars" Book" with plans of battles of Russian army, "Brus" calendar" and engravings on the subject of Northern War. Due to the fashion of that time the representations were added with allegorical figures and quotations from Vergilius and Ovidius in Latin language.
So, on the medal "Foundation of Petersburg" there are Mercury and Minerva, sitting in clouds and holding the portrait of Peter. On the medal there is a note "CZAR. PET. ALEXII. F" (the tsar Peter Alexeevich). On the top of the medal there is another one note "haeC fortIa MoenIa ConDIt" (he founds these firm walls) and a chronogram-1703. Lower there is a representation of Petropavlovsk fortress with an explanation " Harbor and ship yard of Petersburg".
The medal "Building Kronshlot" was devoted to the foundation of navy on the island Kotlin. The note on the medal says: "Kronshlot was built in the middle of winter by Russian emperor. 1704". It"s interesting that on the medal the tsar Peter was called as an emperor firstly.
The medal in memory of Poltava"s battle was designed in the most ceremonial way. It was central in the series and had the sizes, different from others (all medals were minted of 46mm in diameter, but "Poltava"s battle" is of 65mm). On the facial side there is a horse figure of Peter on the background of the battle. On the back side there is Hercules, trampling upon Swiss trophies. Lower there is a laconic note; "The whole Swiss army is destroyed in June, 27 of the old style".
Besides land battles, on some medals there were representations of naval victories of the young Russian navy, the emperor was so proud of. In summer 1714 by the cape Gangue Swiss squadron crossed the way of Russian galley fleet, bringing provisions to Abu. Swiss navy had superiority in artillery- 116 cannons against 23, but it didn"t help them to win the battle. The short bloodshed battle was over with the victory of Russian fleet. The medal in honor of this victory is called "Naval victory by Gangue". There are representations of the battle and an allegorical figure of Victory. Above there is a note: "The first successes of Russian navy".
In 1716 the first stage of the work over the medals was completed, and Muller brought 28 stamps to Petersburg. The medals themselves were minted in Russia. Also several complexes in gold and silver were produced for gifts for delegations of foreign countries.
Some time later the stamps, produced by Muller, became worn, new tools for medal minting was made by Russian masters O.Kalashnikov, T.Ivanov, S. Udin.
At the beginning of XX century the medal- maker of Petersburg Mint P.Stadnitskiy was already copying the stamps of O.Kalashnikov. One of the complexes of the series is kept in Muntsroom of Saint-Petersburg Mint.
This year Saint-Petersburg Mint decided to mint the famous medals of Peter again. The new makes will be made in silver and tombac of 50 mm in diameter. The complexes of the medals will be packed in the cases from valuable kinds of wood, supplied with a certificate each. The medals are planned to realize both under subscription and in free sale.
The information, provided by the official of Saint-Petersburg Mint S.P.Petrov, was used in the material.
Tatyana Balueva
