100 th Anniversary of the Russian Museum

Obverse

in the center — the Emblem of the Bank of Russia (the two-headed eagle designed by I.Bilibin, lower — the semicircular inscription — «БАНК РОССИИ» (BANK OF RUSSIA) framed by a circle of dots and inscriptions along the rim: at the top — «ТРИ РУБЛЯ» (THREE RUBLES), at the bottom — «1998», the letters to the left indicate the metal sign and the fineness, to the right — the fine metal content and the mint trade mark.

Reverse

a fragment (a head of an archangel) from a half-length icon by an unknown painter of the Novgorod Art School of end of the XIIth century. At the bottom — the Stroganov Palace and the date «100 ЛЕТ» (100 YEARS), the inscription along the rim: «РУССКИЙ МУЗЕЙ» (THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM).

Authors

The artist: A.V. Baklanov
The sculptor: A.A. Dolgopolova
St. Petersburg Mint (СПМД)
The edge: 300 corrugations

The State Russian Museum (up to 1917 the Russian Museum of the Emperor Alexander III) was opened on March 7 (19) 1898 in the Mikhailovsky Palace. Today the architectural complex of the museum consists of the notable monuments of the Russian architecture of the XVIIIth–XIXth centuries: the Mikhailovsky Palace (architect K. Rossi), the Stroganov Palace (architect B. Rastrelli), the Marble Palace (architect A. Rinaldi), the Engineering Castle (architects V.I.Bazhenov, V.Brenna). The museum is of the world importance. It possesses the largest and most complete collection of works of the national fine art, which contains about 400000 exhibits and covers all historical periods and trends representing the development of the Russian art within 1000 years, from the Xth to the XXth centuries.