May 2024 eNews
The 2024 Mid-Year Appeal is Now Live!
Make your gift today:
Your gift of $50 covers photography of five coins from the ANS collection
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Your gift of $1,000 provides substantial support for a student intern at the ANS
Upcoming Events and Announcements
Ruth Pliego to Receive the 2023 Huntington Award
On June 13, Ruth Pliego will receive the 2023 Archer M. Huntington Medal Award for Excellence in Numismatic Scholarship in a ceremony at the ANS headquarters in New York City. She will deliver the Silvia Mani Hurter Memorial Lecture, “Archer M. Huntington and Visigothic Coins: Revisiting the La Capilla Hoard.” A reception will be held at the ANS headquarters preceding the hybrid event: RSVP to attend in person. More.
“Money, Minting, and Administration in the Medieval World” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies
On May 9, the ANS is sponsoring a session at the International Congress on Medieval Studies hosted by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The session “Money, Minting, and Administration in the Medieval World” will be chaired by David Sorensen, and will feature papers on Byzantine seals, early medieval gold coins in the North Sea region, and the use of cloth for payments in medieval Iceland. More.
Jesse Kraft at the ANA Summer Seminar
Jesse Kraft, Resolute Americana Assistant Curator of American Numismatics, will teach a class at the American Numismatic Association’s Summer Seminar from June 23–26. His course, “A History of U.S. Colonial Coins, Currency & Medals,” will introduce the many types of colonial money and put them into historical context. More.
8th Monetary History and Numismatics Summer School at Koç University AKMED
Koç University AKMED will host the 8th Monetary History and Numismatics Summer School, held via Zoom from June 24–28. The intensive one-week summer school offers a broad chronological survey of monetary history and numismatics, from the Ancient to Byzantine period (c. 650 BC-AD 1453). Lectures will be given by Oğuz Tekin (Koç University AKMED) and ANS Chief Curator Peter van Alfen. The program, designed for newcomers to numismatics, is an introduction to Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine numismatics, and aims to show participants how numismatics can be used as a tool in their studies in the fields of archaeology, history, and art history. Applications are due May 31. More.
Long Table Lectures in May
Clare Rowan (University of Warwick) will explore various types of Roman tokens and the insight they offer into daily life. Simone Killen (Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy at the German Archaeological Institute) will discuss coins found during the excavations at the Sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, and the new project to publish the finds online. ANS Deputy Director Nathan Elkins will return for the third and final installment on the coinage of Nerva, focusing on types depicting personifications of imperial ideals. Manuel Gozalbes (Valencia Museum of Prehistory) will present Moneda Ibérica, a new digital reference database for ancient monetary systems of the Iberian Peninsula. And Sophia Kremydi (Institute of Historical Studies, National Hellenic Research Foundation) will discuss provenance and what it adds to numismatic studies. More.
April in Review
Sage Tour at the New-York Historical Society
On April 12, eight members of the Augustus B. Sage Society visited the New-York Historical Society for a private tour with Debra Schmidt Bach (NYHS Curator of Decorative Arts and Special Exhibitions), Jesse Kraft (ANS Resolute Americana Assistant Curator of American Numismatics), and ANS Deputy Director Nathan Elkins. The tour included highlights from their medallic arts collection and current exhibits at the NYHS.
Money Talks: Barbarian Imitations and Copies of Roman Imperial Denarii
On April 17, the ANS hosted Arkadiusz Dymowski (Independent Researcher, Poland), who was joined virtually by Kyrylo Myzgin (University of Warsaw, Poland), for a Money Talks lecture. The speakers presented imitations of Roman denarii, focusing on the chronology, typology, and production techniques, and what these objects can tell us about international exchange. Watch.
History of Money and Numismatics Congress
From April 1–4, the Third International Congress on the History of Money and Numismatics in the Mediterranean World, organized by Koç University Suna & İnan Kıraç Mediterranean Research Center on Mediterranean Civilizations, was held in Antalya, Turkey. ANS President Ute Wartenberg Kagan presented “The Coinage of Idyma in Caria—A Re-assessment,” ANS Second Vice President Andrew Burnett presented “The Imperial Currency System of Lycia,” and ANS Chief Curator Peter van Alfen presented “Mechanisms for Overvaluation in Archaic Greek Coinages: Problems of Convenience, Coercion, and Trust.”
“From Solidus to Stravaton: Coinage and Money in the Byzantine World” at Princeton University
From April 26–28, Princeton University hosted “From Solidus To Stavraton: Coinage And Money In The Byzantine World,” a conference celebrating the launch of a new Byzantine coinage platform after their acquisition of two major coin collections from Peter Donald and Chris and Helen Theodotou. The conference was organized by ANS Fellow, and former ANS curator, Alan Stahl and ANS Member Elena Baldi, and featured many other ANS faces including Chief Curator Peter van Alfen, who joined for the roundtable discussion “Nomisma linked-open-data Byzantine platform”, and David Yoon (Mark Salton Curator of Medieval, Renaissance, and Early European Numismatics).
David Yoon at the Society for American Archaeology Conference
On April 19, David Yoon (Mark Salton Curator of Medieval, Renaissance, and Early European Numismatics) presented his paper “Distance and Power in Early Medieval Coinage in Spain” at the Society for American Archaeology Conference in New Orleans. Read more about his time at the conference on the ANS blog Pocket Change.
Lucia Carbone and the University of São Paulo
On April 24, Lucia Carbone (Andrew M. Burnett Associate Curator of Roman Numismatics) presented “Caesar and the “impossible” conciliation of Concordia and Libertas on coins” at the Second International Numismatic Congress, organized by the University of São Paulo in Brazil. The virtual congress was organized in collaboration with the São Paulo Archaeological and Ethnological Museum among other institutions.
ANA Coin Week
Since 1923, the American Numismatic Association has hosted National Coin Week in celebration of the hobby and its community. As part of the week’s program, Jesse Kraft (Resolute Americana Assistant Curator of American Numismatics) presented “Collecting Civil War Tokens: 100 Years Since Hetrich/Guttag”; Peter van Alfen (Chief Curator) presented “Numismatics Online: Changing the World of Research and Collecting”; Mary Lannin (ANS Trustee) presented “Women in Numismatics—The First 2000 Years.”
Long Table Lecturesfrom April
ANS Deputy Director Nathan Elkins presented the second part of his talk on Nerva, focusing on types that referred to constituencies in the city of Rome and Italy. Elizabeth Hahn Benge, collection manager for Arts of Africa and Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium at the Art Institute of Chicago, spoke on the most widespread, long-lasting, and versatile currencies in world history: the cowrie shell. Selene E. Psoma (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) returned for the second half of her talk on nomos and nomisma. And Pere Pau Ripollès, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Valencia, spoke about the civic coinage of Hispania and its use in daily life. Watch the recorded Long Tables on the ANS YouTube Channel.
