Pocket Change Medieval
October 25, 2022
Something we are asked from time to time is how much a past coin was worth in terms of present-day money. It can be hard enough sometimes to say what the coin was worth at the time it was in circulation. Equating it to present-day money brings in some additional difficulties.
Let’s consider one of the most important trade coins of the late Middle Ages, the Florentine gold florin. This was famously recognized as a stable standard of value in western Europe for centuries. Many works in economic history use the Florentine florin as a standard for comparing values…
May 10, 2022
Bronze As of Augustus, Nemausus, AD 10–14. ANS 1953.171.1600.
It has long been said that absence of evidence is…
This essay is being written on December 31, 2021, to be posted on January 4, 2022. It seems like a…
by Ellen Nye and David Yoon
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It is well known that numismatics is closely connected with history, archaeology, art history, and economics. However, coins can be…
Kings Louis XII (left) and Louis XIII (right).
Think of the many French kings named Louis, the many Byzantine emperors named…
Last month, on November 7, 2016, the internationally acclaimed Canadian artist Leonard Cohen died of cancer. He was regarded as…
Last week Katherine Smoak, a graduate student in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University, visited the ANS to…
This is part an ongoing series that answers your questions about our collections. If there’s something you would like to know…
***This is a follow-up to Summer Seminar scholar Lara Fabian’s earlier post about the fascinating history of coinage from the Caucasus in…