numismatics

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The study of coins and related objects.

Numismatics is an ancillary science to history that seeks to identify coins as to place, date, and government of issue so that the inscriptions, images, and other features of the coins can be used as evidence for political, economic, social, and cultural history. For archaeologists, coins are the most consistently datable evidence. Islamic coins produced in Muslim countries and similar coins sometimes issued by non-Muslims are especially useful for historical research - nearly all were inscribed with their city and date of issue and usually (according to the tradition of Islam) did not have images. This left space for long inscriptions, including the names and titles of the rulers under whom they were issued and something of their religious beliefs.

As a field of study, numismatics began during the European Renaissance as part of the general re-discovery of the classical world. Muslim historians did not use coins as historical evidence, although occasionally an extraordinary issue might be mentioned or described. More often they noted changes in the monetary system of their countries, and some writers, notably al-Baladhuri in the ninth century and al-Maqrizi in the first half of the fifteenth century, wrote brief treatises on monetary history. A few descriptions of mint operation were written as well as a few disquisitions on monetary theory, of which the most interesting is by the great historian Ibn Khaldun of fifteenth-century Egypt.

Some Islamic coins were noted in passing in works on other subjects, but the first study of Islamic numismatics was a twenty-page article in 1759. The first catalog of an Italian Islamic collection was published by Adler in 1782, followed by Assemani's catalog of a collection in Padua in 1787 and Tychsen's catalog of the Göttingen collection in 1787/88. Catalogs of public and private collections continued to be published throughout the nineteenth century, culminating at the end of the century in the great catalogs of the national collections of England, France, Germany, and Russia. Stanley Lane-Poole's ten-volume set of the British Museum Islamic coins (1875 - 1890) continues to be a standard reference, partly because of his excellent scholarship and also because it was the only complete catalog of any collection (the British Museum has acquired many more coins since that time). His introductions to the volumes, describing the history and coinage of each Muslim dynasty, are still useful. Lavoix's three massive volumes on the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris, and Nützel's two volumes on the collection of the Königliche Museum, in Berlin, are also standard references. Markov's catalog of the Hermitage collection, in St. Petersburg, is less used because the inscriptions are brief, the work is difficult to find in the West, and it is reproduced directly from his Russian manuscript.

A major impetus to European numismatic research on Islamic coins in the countries from Scandinavia through the Baltic states and into Russia has been the immense quantities of seventh-to-tenth-century Islamic silver coins brought to those countries and buried by the Vikings. Stockholm is one major center for this study, beginning with Torn-berg's several catalogs and studies from 1846 to 1870, and culminating with the great Corpus Nummorum Saeculorum IX - XI, a collective project to publish (first volume 1975) all the Islamic (and English and German) silver coins of the Viking age that were found in Sweden. The other major center for such study, founded by C. M. Fraehn, was St. Petersburg. His works, beginning in 1808, were important not only for Russian numismatists but for scholars throughout Europe. In particular, he devised a scheme for the arrangement of the Islamic coin-issuing dynasties that was followed, with subsequent modifications, by most Islamic numismatists until recently. Russia's numismatic research was also impelled by Russian interest in the coinage of its newly conquered territories in the Caucasus and central Asia.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the leading Russian scholars were Markov, mentioned previously, and Tiesenhausen, who published the only general corpus of Abbasid coins produced to date (a corpus attempts to assemble all known coins of a historical period or place, whereas a catalog is limited to the coins of a single collection or several related collections). Perhaps the most brilliant scholar of the Russian school, Vasmer, was executed in 1938. Numismatic scholarship remained active in the Soviet Union, however, with major centers in Leningrad, Moscow, and the cities of Muslim central Asia.

Islamic numismatics has an early history in Spain, since the coinage of the Arabs there (the Moors) was part of that country's heritage from 711 to 1492. Vives's catalog of all Muslim Spanish issues remains a standard reference. George Miles founded Islamic numismatics at the American Numismatic Society in New York City, which remains one of the principal centers for the field. In 1989, Tübingen University, in Germany, acquired an extremely important collection of Islamic coins and has begun to develop a center for research and training.

The Turks of the Ottoman Empire were the first people of the Middle East to join in numismatic research, publishing in European journals as early as 1862. At the turn of the century, the Müzei Humayun (Imperial Museum) published a series of major catalogs in Ottoman Turkish that rank in importance with the productions of the large European museums. This promising beginning was halted by World War I and the series was never finished. Europeans living in Arab countries produced various works of significance during the first part of the twentieth century, but few Arabs contributed until the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of some Arab states.

Abd al-Rahman Fahmi produced several important catalogs and studies based on the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art, in Cairo, and Nasir al-Naqshbandi founded a school of numismatists in Baghdad, where the Iraq Museum is a major center for research with a journal devoted to Islamic coins called al-Maskukat. The Damascus Museum, in Syria, also has an active collection, and its late curator, Muhammad Abu al-Faraj al-Ush, produced several important works. Recently the Bank al-Maghrib of Rabat, Morocco, has created a numismatic center and published two major corpora of Moroccan coins by Daniel Eustache. Some public collections were built in Iran in the 1970s, but little has been published there. In Jordan, a center for numismatic research has been established at Yarmuk University with private support; a journal, Yarmouk Numismatics, was founded there.

The real explosion in Islamic numismatics began in the 1970s as a result of the new wealth brought by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil. Many private collectors in the Gulf countries began to bid up the price of Islamic coins, and the interest generated by rising prices led to great collector interest in Europe, the Americas, and Japan. This, as well as the expansion of Islamic studies in the West, has made the field extremely active.

Bibliography

Album, Stephen. A Checklist of Islamic Coins, 2d edition. Santa Rosa, CA: Author, 1998.

Bates, Michael L. Islamic Coins. ANS Handbook 2. New York, 1982.

Bates, Michael L. "Islamic Numismatics," Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 12, no. 2 (May 1978): 1 - 16; 12, no. 3 (December 1978): 2 - 18; 13, no. 1 (July 1979): 3 - 21; 13, no. 2 (December 1979): 1 - 9.

Broome, Michael. A Handbook of Islamic Coins. London: Seaby, 1985.

Krause, Chester L., and Mishler, Clifford. Standard Catalog of World Coins. Iola, WI: Krause, annual editions.

Mayer, L. A. Bibliography of Moslem Numismatics, India Excepted, 2d edition. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1954.

Mitchiner, Michael. Oriental Coins and Their Values. 3 vols. London: Hawkins, 1977.

— MICHAEL L. BATES

The study of the physical embodiment of various payment media (i.e. currencies). The study of numismatics as it applies to coins, is often in the research of the production and use of the coins to determine their rarity. Numismatics has many subfields, including but not limited to:

• Notaphily - the study of paper money (i.e. bank notes)
• Exonumia - the study of coin like items such as medals used in place of currency
• Scripophily - the study of securities (i.e. stocks and bonds)

Investopedia Says:
Numismatics differs from historical and economic studies of money. Numismatists study the physical attributes of the payment media rather than the use and development.

Numismatics also differs from coin collecting due to the scientific research involved. It could be said that all numismatists are coin collectors, but not all coin collectors are numismatists.

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• Money, Currency, and Denominations - numismatics: science and study of coins and coinage
• Hobbies - numismatics: coin collecting

This article is about numismatics as an academic discipline. For collecting, see Coin collecting.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Numismatics

Terminology Portal

Currency Coins, Banknotes, Forgery Circulating currencies Community currencies Company scrip, LETS, Time dollars Fictional currencies

Ancient currencies Greek, Roman, China, India Byzantine Medieval currencies Modern currencies Africa, The Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania

Production Mint, Designers Coining, Milling, Hammering, Cast

Exonumia Credit cards, Medals, Tokens, Cheques Notaphily Banknotes Scripophily Stocks, Bonds v t e

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the exchange of goods. Early money used by people is referred to as "Odd and Curious", but the use of other goods in barter exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating currency (e.g., cigarettes in prison). The Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change in lambskins.^[1] The lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horse is not. Many objects have been used for centuries, such as cowry shells, precious metals and gems.

Today, most transactions take place by a form of payment with either inherent, standardized or credit value. Numismatic value may be used to refer to the value in excess of the monetary value conferred by law. This is also known as the "collector value." For example, a collector may be willing to pay more than $2.00 for a United States two-dollar bill, given their low circulation.

Economic and historical studies of money's use and development are an integral part of the numismatists' study of money's physical embodiment.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 History of money 3 History of numismatics 3.1 Modern numismatics 3.2 Subfields 4 Numismatists 5 List of publicly displayed numismatic collections 6 List of important numismatic scholars 7 See also 8 References

Etymology

First attested in English 1829, the word numismatics comes from the adjective numismatic, meaning "of coins", borrowed 1792 from French numismatiques, which derives from Late Latin numismatis, genitive of numisma, a variant of nomisma meaning "coin",^[2] itself the latinisation of the Greek νόμισμα (nomisma), "current coin, custom",^[3] which derives from νομίζω (nomizō), "to hold or own as a custom or usage, to use customarily",^[4] in turn from νόμος (nomos), "usage, custom",^[5] ultimately from νέμω (nemō), "I dispense, divide, assign, keep, hold".^[6]

History of money

Main article: History of money

Money itself must be a scarce good. Many items have been used as money, from naturally scarce precious metals and cowry shells through cigarettes to entirely artificial money, called fiat money, such as banknotes. Modern money (and most ancient money too) is essentially a token – an abstraction. Paper currency is perhaps the most common type of physical money today. However, goods such as gold or silver retain many of the essential properties of money.

History of numismatics

A Roman denarius, a standardized silver coin.

Coin collecting may have existed in ancient times. Caesar Augustus gave "coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money" as Saturnalia gifts.^[7]

Petrarch, who wrote in a letter that he was often approached by vinediggers with old coins asking him to buy or to identify the ruler, is credited as the first Renaissance collector. Petrarch presented a collection of Roman coins to Emperor Charles IV in 1355.

The first book on coins was De Asse et Partibus (1514) by Guillaume Budé.^[8] During the early Renaissance ancient coins were collected by European royalty and nobility. Collectors of coins were Pope Boniface VIII, Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV of France, Ferdinand I, Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg who started the Berlin coin cabinet and Henry IV of France to name a few. Numismatics is called the "Hobby of Kings", due to its most esteemed founders.

Professional societies organized in the 19th century. The Royal Numismatic Society was founded in 1836 and immediately began publishing the journal that became the Numismatic Chronicle. The American Numismatic Society was founded in 1858 and began publishing the American Journal of Numismatics in 1866.

In 1931 the British Academy launched the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum publishing collections of Ancient Greek coinage. The first volume of Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles was published in 1958.

In the 20th century as well the coins were seen more as archaeological objects. After World War II in Germany a project, Fundmünzen der Antike (Coin finds of the Classical Period) was launched, to register every coin found within Germany. This idea found successors in many countries.

In the United States, the US mint established a coin Cabinet in 1838 when chief coiner Adam Eckfeldt donated his personal collection.^[9] William E. Du Bois’ Pledges of History... (1846) describes the cabinet.

C. Wyllys Betts' American colonial history illustrated by contemporary medals (1894) set the groundwork for the study of American historical medals.

Modern numismatics

Modern numismatics is the study of the coins of the mid-17th to the 21st century, the period of machine struck coins. Their study serves more the need of collectors than historians and it is more often successfully pursued by amateur aficionados than by professional scholars. The focus of modern numismatics lies frequently in the research of production and use of money in historical contexts using mint or other records in order to determine the relative rarity of the coins they study. Varieties, mint-made errors, the results of progressive die wear, mintage figures and even the socio-political context of coin mintings are also matters of interest.

Subfields

Main articles: Exonumia, Notaphily, and Scripophily

Exonumia is the study of coin-like objects such as token coins and medals, and other items used in place of legal currency or for commemoration. This includes elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, badges, counterstamped coins, wooden nickels, credit cards, and other similar items. It is related to numismatics proper (concerned with coins which have been legal tender), and many coin collectors are also exonumists.

Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes. It is believed that people have been collecting paper money for as long as it has been in use. However, people only started collecting paper money systematically in Germany in the 1920s, particularly the Serienscheine (Series notes) Notgeld. The turning point occurred in the 1970s, when notaphily was established as a separate area by collectors. At the same time, some developed countries such as the USA, Germany and France began publishing their respective national catalogues of paper money, which represented major points of reference literature.

Scripophily is the study and collection of stocks and Bonds. It is an interesting area of collecting due to both the inherent beauty of some historical documents as well as the interesting historical context of each document. Some stock certificates are excellent examples of engraving. Occasionally, an old stock document will be found that still has value as a stock in a successor company.

Numismatists

The term numismatist applies to collectors and coin dealers as well as scholars using coins as source or studying coins.

The first group chiefly derive pleasure from the simple ownership of monetary devices and studying these coins as private amateur scholars. In the classical field amateur collector studies have achieved quite remarkable progress in the field. Examples are Walter Breen, a well-known example of a noted numismatist who was not an avid collector, and King Farouk I of Egypt was an avid collector who had very little interest in numismatics. Harry Bass by comparison was a noted collector who was also a numismatist.

The second group are the coin dealers. Often called professional numismatists, they authenticate or grade coins for commercial purposes. The buying and selling of coin collections by numismatists who are professional dealers advances the study of money, and expert numismatists are consulted by historians, museum curators, and archaeologists.

The third category are scholar numismatists working in public collections, universities or as independent scholars acquiring knowledge about monetary devices, their systems, their economy and their historical context. An example would be Kenneth Jenkins. Coins are especially relevant as source in the pre-modern period.

List of publicly displayed numismatic collections

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Country	State/City	Description (Museum Name, etc.)
Argentina	Retiro, Buenos Aires	Casa de Moneda de la República Argentina
Armenia	Yerevan	History Museum of Armenia
Austria	Vienna	Kunsthistorisches Museum
Bahrain	Manama	Central Bank of Bahrain Currency Museum
Belgium	Brussels	National Bank of Belgium Museum
Brazil	Brasília	Museu de Valores do Banco Central
Brazil	São Paulo	Museu de Numismática do Itaú Cultural
Canada	Ottawa	Currency Museum Bank of Canada
China	Beijing	China Numismatic Museum[10]
China	Shanghai	Shanghai Museum
Colombia	Bogotá Cundinamarca	Casa de Moneda de Colombia
Costa Rica	San José	Numismatic Museum
Cuba	Havana	Numismatic Museum
Denmark	Copenhagen	National Museum of Denmark
France	Paris	Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque nationale de France
France	Paris	Monnaie de Paris
Germany	Berlin	Bode Museum, Museumsinsel
Germany	Dresden	Coin Cabinet in Royal Palace/Münzkabinett im Residenzschloss
Germany	Frankfurt	Numismatic Museum/Münzkabinett Historisches Museum Frankfurt
Germany	Jena	Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena
Greece	Athens	Numismatic Museum of Athens
India	New Delhi	National Museum, New Delhi
India	Mumbai	Reserve Bank of India Museum
Indonesia	Jakarta	Museum Bank Indonesia
Indonesia	Purbalingga	Museum Uang Purbalingga
Israel	Jerusalem	Israel Museum
Italy	Florence	Mint Tower, Florence Numismatic Museum/Museo della Moneta a Firenze: Torre della Zecca Firenze
Italy	Florence	National Archaeological Museum in Florence
Italy	Lucca	Lucca Mint/Zecca di Lucca
Italy	Naples	Naples National Archaeological Museum
Italy	Rome	National Museum of Rome Crypta Balbi/Museo Nazionale Romano: Crypta Balbi
Italy	Rome Banca d'Italia	School groups only and by appointment only. Banca d'Italia Museo della Moneta
Italy	Rome Vatican	Vatican Museums Philatelic and Numismatic Museum/Museo Filatelico e Numismatico
Japan	Tokyo	Bank of Japan Money Museum BOJ-IMES[11]
Macedonia	Skopje	Narodna Banka na Republika Makedonija [1]
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory	Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery
Paraguay	Asuncion	Numismatica Independencia
Philippines	Manila	Museo ng Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
Qatar	Doha	Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum
Russia	St. Petersburg	Hermitage Museum
Singapore	Singapore	Singapore Coins and Notes Museum
Spain	Madrid	Museo Casa de la Moneda
Spain	Barcelona	Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, numismatic colection
South Africa	Johannesburg	Absa Money Museum
Suriname	Paramaribo	Numismatic Museum of the Centrale Bank van Suriname
Sweden	Stockholm	Royal Coin Cabinet
Sweden	Uppsala	Uppsala University Coin Cabinet
Switzerland	Zurich	Money Museum
Thailand	Bangkok	Pavilion of Regalia, Royal Decorations and Coinse-museum
Ukraine	Odessa	Odessa Numismatics Museum
Ukraine	Feodosia	Feodosia Money Museum
United Kingdom	Cambridge	Fitzwilliam Museum
United Kingdom	Glasgow	Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery[12]
United Kingdom	London	British Museum Department of Coins and Medals
United Kingdom	Manchester	Manchester Museum[13]
United Kingdom	Oxford	Ashmolean Museum
United States	Colorado Springs	American Numismatic Association Money Museum
United States	Washington, D.C.	National Numismatic Collection (NNC), Smithsonian National Museum of American History

List of important numismatic scholars

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

• Andreas Alföldi (1895–1981)
• Augusto Carlos Teixeira de Aragão
• Michael Alram^[14]
• Martin Armstrong
• Simone Assemani (1752–1820)
• Churchill Babington
• Anselmo Banduri
• Georges Bataille
• Mark Blackburn (1953–2011)^[15][16][17]
• Osmund Bopearachchi
• Bartolomeo Borghesi
• Stefano Borgia
• Guillaume Budé
• Andrew Burnett^[18]
• Francesco Carelli
• Carlo Ottavio, Count Castiglione
• Celestino Cavedoni
• Henry Cohen
• Joe Cribb^[19]
• Théophile Marion Dumersan
• Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher
• Giuseppe Fiorelli
• Martin Folkes
• Julius Friedländer
• Andrea Fulvio
• Raffaele Garrucci
• Francesco Gnecchi
• Philip Grierson
• Claude Gros de Boze
• Nicola Francesco Haym (1678–1729)
• Kenneth Jenkins
• Joel L. Malter
• Theodor Mommsen
• Louis Robert
• Desiré-Raoul Rochette
• Joaquín Rubio y Muñoz
• Eduard Rüppell
• Antonio Salinas
• Camillo Serafini
• Adolf Soetbeer
• Charles Surasky
• Francois Thierry^[20]
• Jörgen Zoega

See also

Look up numismatics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Numismatics

Numismatics portal

• Coin collecting
• Coin grading
• Coin catalog
• Glossary of Numismatics
• American Numismatic Association
• American Numismatic Society
• American Israel Numismatic Association
• International Association of Professional Numismatists
• Royal Numismatic Society
• Swiss Numismatic Society
• Joseph Pellerin
• Commodity money
• Money creation
• Where's George?
• Where's Willy?
• Auction catalog
• Exchange rate
• Manillas – a form of primitive or archaic money.
• Money and Medals Network^[21]
• World Money Fair
• Leper colony money
• List of most expensive coins

References

1. ^ Glyn Davies. Chronology of Money 1900 — 1919. ISBN 0-7083-1351-5. http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/amser/chrono14.html. Retrieved 2006-08-09. 
2. ^ nomisma, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, on Perseus
3. ^ νόμισμα, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
4. ^ νομίζω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
5. ^ νόμος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
6. ^ νέμω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
7. ^ Suetonius, Augustus 75 on-line text.
8. ^ Brigham Young University library web page
9. ^ Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. 1985. p. 281. ISBN 0-8247-2037-7. 
10. ^ Museum Special: China Numismatic Museum CCTV News – CNTV English. . Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
11. ^ IMES BOJ Currency Museum TOP. Imes.boj.or.jp. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
12. ^ University of Glasgow :: Collections :: Collections Summary :: Coins and Medals. Gla.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
13. ^ Money. Manchester Museum
14. ^ Mitglieder der Numismatischen Kommission (ÖAW). Oeaw.ac.at (2008-12-19). Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
15. ^ Mark Blackburn obituary | Education. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
16. ^ obituaries « A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe. Tenthmedieval.wordpress.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
17. ^ Mark Blackburn. Telegraph. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
18. ^ Dr Andrew Burnett – British Academy. Britac.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
19. ^ Joe Cribb. British Museum. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
20. ^ Francois Thierry | Bibliothèque nationale de France – Academia.edu. Bnf.academia.edu. Retrieved on 2011-11-24.
21. ^ Home – Money & Medals Network. Moneyandmedals.org.uk (2011-01-12). Retrieved on 2011-11-24.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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