The Cabinet des Médailles is a museum containing internationally important collections of coins, engraved gems, and antiquities, with its distant origins in the treasuries of the French kings of the Middle Ages.

The State also added to the treasury contained in the Cabinet des Médailles: a notable addition, in 1846, was the early sixth century gold Treasure of Gourdon.

Pierre-Jean Mariette, urged by the comte de Caylus, published a selection of the royal carved hardstones as volume II of hisTraité des pierres gravées.

[2] Louis XIV of France, an acquisitive connoisseur, brought together the cabinet of curiosities of his uncle Gaston d'Orléans and acquired that of Hippolyte de Béthune, the nephew of Henri IV's minister Sully.

In the Cabinet des Médailles, the medal-cabinet delivered in 1739 by the ébéniste du roi Antoine Gaudreau figures among the greatest pieces of French furniture.