Dmitri Petrovich Sontsov (Дмитрий Петрович Сонцов; 1803 – 1875) was one of the first Russian

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...

s. Sontsov's father Peter was the Governor of Voronezh, and his maternal uncle owned one of Moscow's finest libraries. He attended the

Page Corps The Page Corps (russian: Пажеский корпус; french: Corps des Pages) was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service. Similarly, the Imperial School of Jurispr ...

before serving as an aide-de-camp to Prince Paskevich in his campaigns in Poland and Hungary. Sontsov's numismatic collection was bequeathed to the

Rumyantsev Museum The Rumyantsev Museum evolved from the personal library and historical collection of Count Nikolay Rumyantsev (1754–1826). Its origin was in St. Petersburg in the Rumyantsev house or mansion, building number 44 on the English Embankment overlo ...

. It is known to have contained some crude forgeries. His

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

is the 1860 compilation
Money of Old Rus
', with 123 illustrations. Sontsov lived separately from his wife Varvara, the daughter of Prince

Pavel Gagarin Prince Pavel Pavlovich Gagarin (russian: Павел Павлович Гагарин; 4 (15) March 1789 in Moscow – 21 February (4 March) 1872 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian statesman from the Rurikid Gagarin family. He was the posthumous chi ...

, Chairman of the Imperial Committee of Ministers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sontsov, Dmitri Petrovich 1803 births 1875 deaths Russian numismatists