Medal collections

Medal collections

The medal collection of Palazzo Madama is made up of 26,500 coins, 6,700 medals, 250 banknotes, 140 seals, 600 gems, cameos, and glass paste (from Antiquity to the Neoclassical period), 220 bronze plaques (in part from the Paravia collection in Venice, which was established in the early 1800s; in part from the Riccardo Gualino collection).
The collection boasts coins from Seleucia, Greece, Magna Graecia, Rome, Byzantium, Longobard and Ostrogoth, medieval, modern, Savoy dynasty, the mint of Milan, as well as Italian, foreign, and Vatican mints. Over 14,000 pieces were acquired by the Museo Civico following the donation by the antiques dealer Mentore Pozzi in 1931. Other important groups, like the Byzantine coins, were donated by Pietro Antonio Gariazzo, an engineer from Biella, specialist in numismatics, collector, and honorary conservator of the collections alongside Vittorio Viale. These collections are partially on display and still being catalogued.