Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena

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Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena is a collection of oriental coins at Jena University in Germany. It began in 1840 when Professor Johann Gustav Stickel persuaded the Grand Duke to acquire about 1,500 coins for study. The coins were gathered by Heinrich August Zwick, a missionary near Sarepta on the Volga, a pioneer of Volga archaeology, and were supported by Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, helping the collection grow.

By Stickel’s death in 1896 the collection had about 12,000 coins; later estimates put it around 14,000. At the end of the 19th century, interest in Islamic coins as textual sources declined. In 1939 about 4,000 coins were returned to the Grand-Ducal family, and many were lost after World War II. The collection survived in East Germany.

In 1994, Semitic Philology and Islamic Studies at Jena University were revived, and the collection, then about 8,690 coins, was renewed as a modern research resource led by Stefan Heidemann. With private support the collection grew to about 21,000 coins, spanning from Morocco to East Asia. As of November 2012, the cabinet contains roughly 21,000 Islamic coins and about 1,200 East Asian coins.