Skarby monet z Wielkopolski w świetle zasobu archiwalnego Gabinetu Numizmatycznego Muzeum Narodowego w Poznaniu dotyczącego lat 1894–1918

A lot can be learned on Greater Poland’s coin hoards from archival resources stored in museums. The paper discusses the contents of 4 completely preserved sets of records containing documents related to the functioning of the department of coins and medals in the German museum in Poznań, which existed in the years 1894–1918. From 1903 it was called the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Posen. Both heads of the German museum—first, Dr Franz Schwartz (1864–1901) and from 1903 Prof. Dr Ludwig Kaemmerer (1862–1938)—were interested in the acquisition of numismatic specimens, including finds. Thanks to these heads, an effective procedure was created, which included searching for information on finds in the press, with the help of the offices and agencies of the Prussian state and from among the population of the province. This was applied thanks to many years’ beneficial cooperation with activists of the German Numismatic Society, with special reference to Heinrich Grüder, Hans Balszus and Dr Hugo Moritz. The procedure included the verification of press reports, travels to find places of deposits, talks to the discoverers and the owners of land where discoveries were made, examinations of the contents of deposits, their identification and the publication of the hoards’ contents in the regional specialist press. The most abundant set of documents is devoted to the methodical, systematic and active search for hoards of coins discovered in the then Province of Poznań, carried out by the management of Poznań’s museum. Documents reveal the scope of numismatic interests of the persons who managed the museum and their methods of work. They allow for an insight into the acquisition policy and the quality of the collection; furthermore, they provide data on the sums spent on numismatic specimens. Based on these, it is possible to state that the managers of the museum were interested in creating an assemblage of coins and medals related to the Province of Poznań, that is, first of all Polish coins and coins related to Poland. Thanks to the pieces of information preserved in these documents, it is possible to restore the knowledge on presently scattered deposits to scholarship and to specify the knowledge on known finds.