Graham Pollard was the leading British scholar of Italian Renaissance medals of the second half of the 20th century, and was for many years the sole UK representative in the world of medallic studies.

Born in 1929 in Gillingham, Kent, he was christened John in accordance with a family tradition for elder sons, but was always known by his second name. An early interest in natural history and archaeology was fed by constant visits to the Guildhall Museum, Rochester, and expeditions into the Kent countryside. In 1946 his family moved to Cambridge, the city that was to remain his home for the next 60 years.

His long association with the Fitzwilliam Museum began the following year, when he was offered a job there as a museum attendant. After completing his National Service in 1950 he returned as a museum assistant in the coin room. In 1954, after taking a BA in history at Pembroke College, he was promoted to the post of junior assistant keeper of coins and medals. From 1966 he was keeper of coins and medals, acting also as deputy director of the museum from 1969. His departure from the museum in 1988 was followed by a productive retirement.

A catalogue of Ancient Greek coins appears among his early publications, but medals were his passion, and it is in this area that his legacy will endure. Much of his work on Italian Renaissance medals built on the studies of the great early 20th-century scholar Sir George Hill, and Pollard produced revised editions of two of Hill's most important works. Pollard's chief contributions, however, were the catalogues of two of the most important Renaissance medal collections in the world: those of Florence and Washington.

The first of these originated in the early 1970s in conversations between Pollard and Ulrich Middeldorf, the art historian and former director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence, and was published in three volumes in 1984-85. Those devoted to the 16th century were the first to cover this period in such detail, making it a landmark publication. His other main published work, a two-volume catalogue of medals in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, appeared at the turn of this year.

Pollard saw an advance copy two months before his death. His Italian wife, Maria, helped him greatly with the research, and is duly credited on the title page.

Pollard's subjects also included the 16th-century Netherlands, early medal patronage in England, the Italian Baroque, and 18th and 19th-century Britain. A series of articles on Matthew Boulton added considerably to the knowledge of medal-making in early industrial Britain, and he contributed a biography of the Italian medallist and coin and gem engraver Benedetto Pistrucci to the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Pollard was also a gifted teacher who shared his knowledge and enthusiasm with his students. As a curator he made important additions to the Fitzwilliam's medal collection, including a previously unknown work by the 16th-century Dutch artist Steven van Herwijck.

Pollard's renown made him the obvious choice for the position of chairman when in 1982, with the assistance of the Royal Society of Arts, Mark Jones and Ron Dutton formed the British Art Medal Society to promote the study and making of medals. With the society firmly established, Pollard stepped down after four years, but he remained an active member.

Pollard had close connections with Wolfson College, as a Fellow from 1967, as librarian for 15 years from 1980, and as a member of the college council. He also contributed to Cambridge civic life, campaigning against insensitive city developments and advising the city council on conservation issues. He served two terms as president of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.

His wife Maria (née Seri), whom he married in 1963, predeceased him by three weeks. He leaves a son.

Graham Pollard, scholar and expert on Renaissance medals, was born on December 25, 1929. He died after a long illness on December 17, 2007, aged 77