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This paper concerns the coin collection in the gymnasium library of the city of Strängnäs, in mid-Sweden. This collection, one of many similar coin collections formed at various Swedish schools in the 19th century, was founded in the early decades of the 19th century. The vast majority of coins were donations; the donors were mainly scholars belonging to the gymnasium and the local clergy. However, to an increasing extent, the residents of Strängnäs also donated coins to the collection. A number of scholars of nationwide fame also contributed.

The study argues that the collection, and similar school collections, fulfilled a social function in a time of drastic change. Strängnäs was an ancient diocese and school town, and in the 19th century presented an arena for informal meetings of local and regional elites. Donations to the coin collection of the gymnasium, it is suggested, enabled access to this arena. Thus, the formation of coin collections presents a hitherto overlooked key to Sweden’s changing 19th-century society.