Most Russian museums have just single or few exhibits of stamping tools. The Hermitage possesses several collections of medal and coin dies.
The collection of dies from Asian and African countries is dominated by the unique group of coin dies dating back to the Khanate of Khiva numbering 345 items. The collection contains dies for striking coins, from the time of Muhammad Rahim (1805/06–1821) to the last years of the rule of Muhammad (1856–1864). The major part of the collection, 340 items, was transferred in 1930 to the Hermitage from the Asian Museum, where in its turn it had found its way along with the so called Khivin Khans’ Treasury after the Khanate’s becoming a protectorate of Russia.
The Hermitage houses a small number (barely exceeding 20) of dies for Western European medals and coins minted between the 16th and 19th centuries. Amongst them one can find companion dies, for example, those of the obverse and reverse of the medal commemorating the death of Eugène de Beauharnais in 1824.
In addition, the Hermitage holds several Russian coin and medal dies dating back to the late 18th and 19th centuries. A prominent place among them is occupied by a set of three dies for the Konstantinovsky ruble of 1825, as well as the set of dies of the medal issued to commemorate the birthday of Catherine II on 21 April 1793, in the production of which the future Empress Maria Feodorovna took part.
In 2007–2008 the St Petersburg Mint handed over to the Hermitage more than three thousand stamping tools of different names including molds, lead screws and dies, for producing Soviet commemorative medals and tokens.
