SERAFINI, CAMILLO. - Numismatist, b. 21 Apr. 1864 in Rome to a well-known and affluent Roman family, d. in the Vatican on 21 March 1952. Having completed his literary and archaeological studies, he then devoted himself to numismatic research, which was to constitute the passion of his entire life.
As early as 1889, as Honorary Curator, he began the study and arrangement of the Capitoline numismatic collections, whose restoration after the events of 1943 he supervised. In 1895 he was summoned by Leone XIII to the Vatican Numismatic Cabinet; first as assistant to Carlo Ludovico Visconti, then with Enrico Stevenson, he began that work of identifying, enlarging, and arranging those collections which lasted until the end of his life. In Nov. 1898 he was finally entrusted with definitive custody and full responsibility for the same Coin Cabinet, and he succeeded in bringing it to first place among similar collections not only in Italy but in Europe. After only 20 years of his directorship, the collections, from fewer than 46,000 pieces, had doubled; and above all the collection of papal coins had been enlarged, reaching 18,943 specimens, of which 1,555 were in gold, more than 10,000 in silver, and the remainder in bronze; and this thanks to the judicious purchase of numerous private collections, among which the two most important were those of Randi and Celati. S. felt it his duty to draw up
