Volodymyr Antonovych

Volodymyr Antonovych (1834–1908) was an extraordinary personality in the Ukrainian history of the 19th century, a Ukrainian historian, archaeologist, ethnographer, and archeographer. He was also a doctor of sciences, a professor at Kyiv University, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a co-organizer of the Kyiv community, and a member of the Kyiv Society of Antiquities and Arts. For many years, he was the keeper of the mint cabinet and the Museum of Antiquities of the Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr.

During the reception of the collection, V. Antonovych drew attention to the fact that despite all the richness of the numismatic collection, it was composed quite unevenly and had significant gaps. V. Antonovych paid the most attention to the planned, systematic replenishment of the collection.

Analyzing the Antonovych’s activities around the collection, we can conclude that he directed his efforts as follows: 
- considering it necessary to cooperate with foreign auctions in order to replenish the collection with well-preserved specimens and those the collection lacked; 
- establishing cooperation with collectors of Kyiv and Russia as a whole; 
- understanding it is a study of treasures, an important source of research on economic and political history.

During his tenure, Volodymyr Antonovych collaborated with many European auction houses. Among them, it is necessary to mention the auction house, Thieme (C.G.Thieme) from Leipzig, the Egger brothers' auction from Vienna, the Venetian firm Marchio (later Marchio & Meyer), etc. Thanks to this collaboration, the collection of the mint cabinet was replenished with almost 3,000 wonderful numismatic monuments representing the coinage of Ancient Greece, Rome, Western Europe, and America.

Work with private collectors also became an important source of income for the mint cabinet collection. The scientist’s high authority and his fundamental knowledge brought around him lovers of antiquity and numismatics. Thanks to these relationships, the numismatic collection was actively replenished with rare examples of coins, and the first circle of numismatists in the southwestern region was formed around Antonovych.

It is necessary to mention S. Bodilevskyi, M. Chernev, K. Bolsunovskyi, and M. Bilyashivskyi as among the most active members of this circle. Members of this circle gathered regularly at V. Antonovych's place, exchanged coins, donated coins for the mint cabinet, or helped V. Antonovych in acquiring interesting, important specimens for the collection.

The priority and most interesting form of work for Antonovych remained the study of coin treasures found in this territory. It was the coins from the findings that the scientist gave preference to and argued for this by the fact that: "Without a doubt, from foreign traders, specimens in excellent preservation can be obtained, but at the same time there is a risk of obtaining a fake coin, in contrast to the fact that from a local treasure, there is no doubt about their authenticity."

Among this huge number of coin deposits, the treasure (1873) from the village of Gvozdiv in the Kyiv region is the most outstanding. Among the coins of the treasure was a coin with the name of Volodymyr, not yet published. This treasure became the topic of a speech at the 3rd Archaeological Congress in Kyiv, where Volodymyr Antonovych made one of the greatest numismatic discoveries of the 19th century - a coin of Prince Volodymyr Olherdovich of Kyiv, who ruled in Kyiv from 1363 to 1394.

Antonovych’s most important scientific work in numismatics is considered to be the systematic catalogs of ancient coins kept in the collection of the Mint Cabinet of St. Volodymyr. A total of 3 catalogs were published: the first issue was devoted to the coins of Ancient Greece, the second to the coins of the Roman Republic, and the third to the coins of the Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Commodus.

The famous numismatist, K. Bolsunovsky, wrote: "This was the first fundamental work on ancient numismatics written in the Slavic language. The importance and complexity of creating such a scientific work can only be appreciated by a person who has identified at least one hundred classic coins in his life. The appearance of this catalog became an extremely important phenomenon in 19th century numismatics, because it made classical numismatics accessible to everyone who is interested in them."

During the tenure of V. Antonovych, the collection of the mint cabinet almost doubled, and by the beginning of the 20th century, it consisted of more than 61 thousand coins and medals. Thanks to the purposeful, painstaking, long-term work of the scientist, the numismatic collection of Kyiv University has become one of the largest and best academic collections in Eastern Europe.