Cabinet des Medailles et Antiques in Paris

The Cabinet des Médailles, or Cabinet de France, bears the official title of Le département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiquités de la Bibliothèque Nationale and is a department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Set in its former building in rue de Richelieu, the Cabinet des Médailles dates back to the times of the royal court treasuries of the Middle Ages. Currently, it's a museum which specializes in coin collections and similar expensive objects from the past. To guard these treasures n the boisterous times of the Wars of Religion, Charles IX decided to summon a garde particulier des médailles et antiques du roi. The person holding the post was specifically responsible for the medals and the antiquities of the royal family. The collection has always been important for the French society. During the French Revolution, it was declared national property, or bien national. Since then, new objects have been incorporated to the collection, which is still treated with great reverence.

The Cabinet, a word which makes you think of a rather small private space where you can invite someone to talk and display precious works of art, took a stable shape under the reign of Henri IV, who appointed Rascas de Bagarris as garde particulier des médailles et antiques du roi. One of the people who were taking care of the Cabinet des Médailles was Théophile Marion Dumersan (1780-1846), an outstanding figure who started working at the Cabinet in 1795 as a 16-year-old. He was responsible for the collection after Napoleon's defeat and used his own money to publish a description of the collection and an account of its history. The earliest printed catalogue of the collection, however, was published by Pierre-Jean Mariette in 1750.

Later, Louis XIV of France assembled some more interesting requisites, a collection he called the cabinet de curiosités of his uncle Gaston d'Orléans. Together with the Cabinet of Hippolyte de Béthune (a nephew of Henri IV's minister, Sully), he moved the precious objects to Versaille, where he could keep an eye on them. Under Louis XV, the Cabinet was taken back to Paris in 1724 and placed in current location in the royal library. Since 1739, the Cabinet des Médailles boasts some remarkable pieces of French furniture and paintings of such famous painters as Boucher, Natoire and Van Loo.

The collection has been augmented via a series of bequests, most notably those of pioneering archeologist comte de Caylus, as well as the duc de Luynes, who bequeathed his collection of Greek coins to the Cabinet Impérial in 1862. The state also added significantly to the treasury in the Cabinet des Médailles, including the early 6th-century gold Treasure of Gourdon, donated in 1846. Of particular note among the objects on display is the Gold 20-stater of Eucratides I (175–150 BC), the largest gold coin ever minted in Antiquity. The coin weighs 169.2 grammes and has a diameter of 58 millimetres. The item was originally found in Bukhara and later acquired by Napoleon III. Also prominent among the collection is the Sassanian ‘Cup of Chosroes’, from Saint-Denis.