Giorgio Conetti's numismatic collection
Giorgio Conetti, professor emeritus of International Law at the University of Insubria in Como-Varese, formerly a full professor in the subject at the universities of Trieste and Milan, has devoted himself to the study of the Balkan area, and has cultivated, almost certainly in tune with his research, a rare numismatic collecting of considerable relevance precisely because of the historical implications it documents. He has long been interested in numismatics, having availed himself of the guidance and friendship of Giulio Bernardi; his collecting and research activities have been oriented on Ottoman coinage, especially of the 18th century for its typological richness, and of the Balkan area. In the latter with special attention to the coinage of Serbia and Bulgaria, from medieval times until the Ottoman conquest, and then after their resurgence to independence in the second half of the 19th century.
The collection that has been offered as an unconditional donation to the Museum Pole of the University of Trieste consists of three nuclei that include: coinage of the kingdom, later empire, of Serbia under the Nemanja dynasty from the reign of Stefan Uros II. Coinage of the Second Bulgarian Empire (Asen, Terter, Shisman dynasties) from 1213 to 1396, the date of the completion of the Ottoman conquest with the fall of the cities of Tarnovo and Vidin. Silver issues, mostly imitations of Venetian grossi, and bronze trachy appear in this earliest core. The collection is particularly notable for its unity and documentary effectiveness
The nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collections include the principality, then kingdom of Serbia (1839-1918) under the Obrenovic (Mihail, Milan, Alexander) and Karageorgevic (Peter I) dynasties; the principality, then kingdom of Bulgaria, to whose throne Alexander of Battenberg (1879-1886) and Ferdinand of Saxony Coburg Kohary (1887-1918) succeeded each other after independence in the second half of the nineteenth century. They are joined by specimens from the Bulgarian Republic of the late 20th-early 21st century. The set of 130 coins that make up this second core of the Conetti collection (mostly silver) is valuable. Five leptas inserted in the system of account known as the Latin Union of the second half of the 19th century, decimalized fractions but also copper decimal fractions.
Completing the collection is the third section, a collection of 21 medals, minted during the reign of Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786), of considerable historical interest; they glorify the ruler, his battles and victories, making use of powerfully celebratory iconography.
