How did the idea of creating the International Numismatic Club Museum arise?
The MNK Museum was founded in 2015. Its collections are based on the collection of the well-known Russian entrepreneur Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov. The collection is most fully represented by gold coins. The core of the collection consists of coins of the Russian Empire; later the scope of interest expanded, and new sections were formed devoted to ancient Greek, ancient Roman, and Byzantine coins, Western European thalers, and coins of the East. Gradually the collection reached such scale and quality that it was decided to open it to everyone.
Museum interior
What is the museum's mission?
The mission of the MNK Museum is the preservation of the world's numismatic heritage. From this follows the next aspect — the popularization of numismatics as a science. For our museum it is crucial to introduce the collection to broad segments of the population: researchers, collectors, numismatics enthusiasts, and all those interested. An important aspect of the museum's work is also education: not only the preservation and expansion of the collection matters, but also the training of new generations of specialists in this field.
Museum exhibition
Tell us about some of the unique exhibits?
The exhibition features the most famous Russian coin — the Constantine rouble of 1825. It was struck in the name of Constantine, the elder son of Paul I. Constantine abdicated the throne, yet the mint had already prepared his coin. Because the coin posed a threat to the legitimacy of Nicholas I, all specimens were placed in the secret archive of the Ministry of Finance. In 2021 this coin was purchased in Hong Kong for 2.6 million US dollars and has been in the museum since. The MNK museum holds the largest collection of Genghis Khan's coins in the world; many of his coins are known in only one or two specimens. Among the ancient Greek coins in the MNK museum is an exceptional collection from the city of Cyzicus, which constitutes a kind of encyclopedia of themes of ancient Greek art and mythology. The museum also houses the largest collection of ancient Roman gold coins, including the very first in Roman history, which was struck to pay soldiers who fought against Hannibal's forces. The coin of the last Roman emperor — Romulus Augustulus — is also represented in the collection.
Constantine rouble of 1825
Constantine rouble of 1825
How are tours conducted in your museum?
To visit the exhibition, you need to book a tour on the MNK museum website. We offer different categories of tours: for children, adults, interactive quests, a general tour through the Zinovyev-Yusupov chambers, as well as visits to exhibitions on various themes: Coins of the East, Treasures of Ancient Greece, silver thalers, and others. Because the exhibits in the museum are small, a certain distance is necessary for comfortable viewing of the coins, so tour groups are limited in size.
What interactive technologies are integrated into the museum exhibition?
Coins are complex exhibits. They are miniature and have two sides. Multimedia technologies help us so that visitors can examine each coin in the finest detail, flip it over, and learn all about it. Each display case is integrated with a touch panel that provides access to these capabilities. Video mapping also plays an important role in the exhibition. With it, engaging stories, animations, and previews of key exhibits are integrated into the tour. To acquaint visitors with the main goods of the Great Silk Road, the exhibition features a "trade reactor" that uses technology resembling the principle of contactless payment in modern supermarkets. There are also tactile exhibits and the opportunity to make impressions of the rarest coins in the collection.
Museum interior: display cases with touch panels
Tell us about the museum building and its historical significance?
The mansion housing the museum has great cultural and historical significance for Moscow. The Zinovyev-Yusupov chambers are the oldest secular building in the Arbat district and the only large stone chambers north of Prechistenka. The first mention of the construction of the chambers by stolnik Petr Zinovyev dates to 1685. Over the centuries the mansion changed many owners, among them the Zinovyev and Yusupov families, Lev Tolstoy's great-grandfather Andrey Tolstoy, the Saltykovs, the Rimsky-Korsakovs, and Alexander Bers — the brother of Sofya Andreevna, Lev Tolstoy's wife. In the 19th century the mansion underwent a series of reconstructions according to the tastes of the time: first in the Empire style, then in the 1860s Empire gave way to eclecticism. Nothing recalled the 17th-century chambers. By the early 2000s the building had fallen into a completely dilapidated state: for many years the house stood without a roof, almost entirely ruined, until comprehensive repair and restoration work was carried out in the 2010s. Under the direction of T.S. Borisova, the restorers in a sense performed a miracle, and now we have the opportunity to see how the building looked in the 17th–18th centuries.
The Zinovyev-Yusupov chambers
What are the museum's plans for the future?
The museum is preparing new exhibition projects. Each of them promises to become an event in the world of numismatics. Currently the Byzantine part of the collection is being prepared for public display. Together with the country's largest museums, it is planned to create a unique space at the intersection of Byzantine art and numismatics. The museum's plans are not limited to exhibition activity. Collectors' meetings, lectures, and scientific conferences are held regularly. A research laboratory operates at the museum, and students receive training there. In the long term the MNK museum plans to become the largest national center for numismatics in Russia and one of the key centers of numismatics in the world.
