Numismatics in Bulgaria during the 19th century

Abstract

This study aims to trace the development of numismatics in Bulgaria in the 19th century. The author divides the chronological period into two subperiods. The first one corresponds to the time when the Bulgarian lands were still part of the Ottoman Empire, and some of the key figures from the Bulgarian Revival period, such as Vasil Aprilov and Georgi Rakovski among others, began collecting and publishing for the first time different antiquities, including coins. That modest research laid the foundations of Bulgarian numismatics by publishing ancient and medieval coins. These people also launched the museum work in Bulgaria. The second period began after the National Liberation in 1878 when the Bulgarian state started to establish its own research institutions and began legally to monitor the preservation of antiquities. Important roles in the development of the Bulgarian academic numismatics from this period were played by Konstantin Irechek, Shkorpil brothers, Vatslav Dobruski, Domenico Takela, etc.