The collection was formed by Heinrich August Zwick, missionary of the German Protestant Herrnhut-Brotherhood, in Russia.

Stickel won Maria Pavlovna, the Grand duchess, as the main benefactor of the collection, which in turn grew rapidly.

At the end of the 19th century the keen interest of Orientalist for Islamic coins as textual sources lost its momentum, because of the abundance of other now edited texts.

The collection was then brought to live again as a modern scientific research tool for the history of the Islamic and Oriental world.

With the help of generous private benefactors the collection now holds about 21,000 coins, covering an area from Morocco to East Asia.