SAAREMAA MUSEUM > To researchers > Collections of Saaremaa Museum > Numismatics and bonistics

Numismatics and bonistics

NUMISMATICS

NumismaatikaThe coin collection includes stray finds and donations as well as museum objects that have been registered together with treasure troves and hoards. The museum has mainly collected coins that have been used on the territory of Estonia/Saaremaa during different time periods (Baltica, Russia and the Soviet Union, Germany, Sweden). In addition, the collection also includes single coins that have been donated to the museum by the people of Saaremaa who have brought these along with them from different countries. More than three fourths of the coins in the numismatic collection come from the hoards found from Lõpi, Tõrise and Kuke villages.

The most interesting sub-collections:

  • The first coin collection was bought to the museum in 1962. Among other things, it includes a great number of Arabian coins that are thought to be a part of a rare coin hoard from the Viking Age found from Saaremaa.
  • Coins that were discovered from under the floor of Muhu Church during the renovation works in 1983.
  • The hoard found from Lõpi village in 1988, which among other things included 20 Arensburg/Kuressaare coins from the times of duke Magnus.

 

BONISTICS

Bonistika

The collection has been assembled mostly with the help of donations and consists mainly of banknotes that have been used in Saaremaa/Estonia. The biggest sub-collections consist of banknotes from different occupation periods when Estonia was occupied by the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and Germany. Rare objects include two exemplars of so-called Neps’ money, which is actually a 5% promissory note of Saaremaa County Government.