Отдел нумизматики Государственного Эрмитажа в первые послевоенные годы (К истории формирования системы учета и хранения нумизматических памятников)

The basics of the existing system of inventory and conservation at the Department of Numismatics were established in the first half of the 20th century: every new item was recorded by a special act and subsequently entered into a register and inventory catalogues. In the first postwar years (late forties through early fifties) the collection was returned from Sverdlovsk, where it had been kept during the war, and its restoration required a great amount of work. To cope with this task and to meet the new and more strict requirements of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Culture concerning the conservation of precious metals the system had to be changed: inventory catalogues containing detailed descriptions were replaced by inventory books with short one-line entries; special inventory registers were introduced to enter items containing precious metals or stones. At the same period the Numismatics Department moved from the New Hermitage, where it had stayed since the mid-19th century, to the rooms on the second fl oor of the Winter Palace.