October 2020 eNews

Announcements and Upcoming Events

The 2020 Huntington Award to Syd Martin
The Trustees of the American Numismatic Society (ANS) have voted to bestow upon Mr. Sydney Martin the 2020 Archer M. Huntington Award in recognition of his scholarly work specializing in Colonial American coinage. Mr. Martin has published four books, written several articles for the Colonial Newsletter, and has presented papers at the Coinage of the Americas Conference, historical societies, and clubs. Join us for this virtual event on Thursday, November 19, 2020, at 1:00 pm EST when Mr. Martin will present the 2020 Silvia Mani Hurter Memorial Lecture: Numismatic Commemoratives of the 200th Birthday of George Washington in 1932. More…

Dr. Ute Wartenberg

Ute Wartenberg steps into Syd Martin’s role as ANS President
At the 163rd Annual Meeting of the American Numismatic Society Mr. Sydney F. Martin announced that he would be stepping down from his position as President of the Society. Mr. Martin’s leadership helped oversee the growth of the Society’s endowment, was a founding member of the Augustus B. Sage Society, and in 2014 his generous pledge helped to kick off the Campaign to Endow the Chair of the Executive Director. Also announced at this meeting was the nomination of the Society’s new President: Dr. Ute Wartenberg. Dr. Wartenberg brings to this position more than two decades of experience as Executive Director of the ANS, along with her extensive knowledge of numismatics and the community. More…

The Ephemeral Flying Eagle: Gobrecht Dollars in the ANS Collection
Join Dr. Eric Krauss for a Money Talks on November 7. The ANS holds the world’s largest collection of Flying Eagle or Gobrecht Dollars in the world, with an example of every variety save one, as well as a group of extremely rare trial strikes and related patterns.  This presentation will explore the origins of the coin and the misadventures attending its design, leading to the final abandonment of the iconic flying eagle motif.  Using never-before seen high-resolution images of coins from the collection, competing theories will be explored and discussed in an effort to better understand how and when the coins were produced and for what purpose. More…

The first video of the Great Coins series is released
In this episode, Associate Curator of Roman Coins, Dr. Lucia Carbone, looks at what is probably the most celebrated Roman coin, the EID MAR (Ides of March) denarius. This coin was struck under the authority of Julius Caesar’s main assassin, Marcus Junius Brutus, in 43-42 BCE, to commemorate Caesar’s assassination on the Ides of March 44 BCE. Shortly after, Brutus died on the battlefield, sealing the end of the Republic. More…

Lucia Carbone to speak at the Belgian School of Athens webinar 
Dr. Lucia Carbone will be giving a talk titled Hidden Power: Late Cistophoric Production and the Organization of the Provincia Asia at the Belgian School of Athens on Monday, November 23 at 11:00 am EST (via Zoom). The talk will discuss her recent monograph and argue that the study of cistophoric production is crucial to the understanding of the economic and administrative structures of the Province of Asia, one of the richest of the Roman Empire. All are welcome to attend. A link will be made available a week before the webinar. More…

Save the date! The 2021 Gala will be held virtually on January 14
Join us for the 2021 Gala as we posthumously honor Lottie and Mark Salton whose generous support of the Society has enabled us to complete a number of important projects in fulfillment of our mission. 

Read the 2020 Annual Report
Read about the ANS’s response to COVID, the past year’s research, recent acquisitions to the cabinet, and much, much more. Read the Annual Report.

October in Review

The best attended Money Talks yet! 
On October 3, Warren Esty gave the best attended Money Talks to date. He discussed how to use die-identities to estimate the original number of dies and how to use die links to make inferences about chronology and mint organization. He explained how the same methods also apply to links between other features of coins such as legends and types. A video recording of this talk will be made available on YouTube soon. 

October Long Tables
This month’s discussions include: Themes and Variations in Byzantine Coins with Donald SquiresRecent Acquisitions to the ANS Collection with Peter van Alfen,  Cultural Heritage and Collecting Coins with Ute Wartenberg and Peter TompaThe Archaeology of Future Currencies with Andrew Reinhard, and Vault Favorites with Gilles Bransbourg