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RUSSIAN EMPIRE: Alexander I, 1801-1825, AR medal, 1803. NGC AU55

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - Europe Start Price:2,800.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
RUSSIAN EMPIRE: Alexander I, 1801-1825, AR medal, 1803. NGC AU55
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RUSSIAN EMPIRE: Alexander I, 1801-1825, AR medal, 1803, Diakov-283.1, 65mm, silver medal by C. Leberecht. Honoring P. G. Demidov, founder of the Academy of Higher Sciences, uniformed bust of Demidov left with order ribbon // three lines of writing, around the Order of St. Vladimir, surrounded by oak leaves, very rare in silver! NGC graded AU55, RRR. Pavel Grigoryevich Demidov (1738-1821) was a Russian traveller and patron of scientific education. A grandson of Nikita Demidov, he created the Mineralogical Museum in Moscow in 1775, the Demidov Lyceum at Yaroslavl in 1803, and in 1805 the Demidov Scientific Institute at Saint Petersburg. He was also the founder of the University of Tobolsk, Moscow's Botanical Gardens (the Neskuchny Gardens), the Demidov Chair of Natural History at Moscow University and an annual prize for Russian literature, awarded by the Academy of Sciences. In total, he gave one million roubles to scientific institutions. During the period from 1803 to 1806, he donated nearly 4,000 coins and medals to the Imperial University of Moscow, including a group of rare Swedish coins and medals dating from the 16th to the 18th century coming from the former collection of Swedish numismatist Elias Brenner (1647-1717). The university collections survived the Napoleonic Wars and eventually found their way to the numismatic collections of the Pushkin State Museum. Carl Alexander von Leberecht was born in 1755 in Meiningen, Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. He was a German medalist and teacher. Born into the family of Alexander von Leberecht, he lived in Russia from the mid-1770s. He was a medalist at the St Petersburg Mint from 1778, and was awarded Russian citizenship in 1794. He was the Principal medalist of the St Petersburg Mint beginning in 1799 and honorary fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he headed the medallion class. He designed more than fifty medallions and several coins. He died in St Petersburg in 1827.