Pocket Change Medieval

Medieval Money at the Morgan Library 
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Medieval Money at the Morgan Library 
By David Yoon

As a number of previous posts in this blog have mentioned, some of the best opportunities to see objects from our collections occur when other institutions borrow from us for an exhibition on a particular theme. A new exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum on the theme of Medieval Money, Merchants and Morality, which will be on view from November 10, 2023, to March 10, 2024. ANS items on display include two seventeenth-century German coin balances, gold florins and billon groots, part of a hoard of Venetian torneselli, a Danish bracteate penny and an Austrian double guldenthaler, among others. 

Billon…

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How Much Is That in Dollars?
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How Much Is That in Dollars?
By David Yoon

Something we are asked from time to time is how much a past coin was worth in terms of present-day…

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The Coins That Aren't There
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The Coins That Aren't There
By David Yoon

Bronze As of Augustus, Nemausus, AD 10–14. ANS 1953.171.1600. 

It has long been said that absence of evidence is not evidence…

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New Years and Old Years
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New Years and Old Years
By David Yoon

This essay is being written on December 31, 2021, to be posted on January 4, 2022. It seems like a…

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The Ottoman Kuruş and Control of Coinage
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The Ottoman Kuruş and Control of Coinage
By David Yoon

by Ellen Nye and David Yoon

In August 2018, as Turkey faced a currency crisis, its president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called…

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Coins with Two-Sided Legends
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Coins with Two-Sided Legends
By David Yoon

In principle, the two sides of a coin are coequal. However, descriptions of coins inevitably place one side before the…

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The Denier Tournois
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The Denier Tournois
By David Yoon

One manifestation of the centralization of states is the standardization of measures, and no system of measurement is of more…

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Coins and Linguistics
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Coins and Linguistics
By David Yoon

It is well known that numismatics is closely connected with history, archaeology, art history, and economics. However, coins can be…

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Pick a Number, Any Number
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Pick a Number, Any Number
By The American Numismatic Society

Kings Louis XII (left) and Louis XIII (right).

Think of the many French kings named Louis, the many Byzantine emperors named…

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The Secret Chord: Harps and Lyres on Ancient and Modern...
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The Secret Chord: Harps and Lyres on Ancient and Modern Coins
By Oliver Hoover

Last month, on November 7, 2016, the internationally acclaimed Canadian artist Leonard Cohen died of cancer. He was regarded as…

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Profiles in Research: Katherine Smoak
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Profiles in Research: Katherine Smoak
By Matthew Wittman

Last week Katherine Smoak, a graduate student in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University, visited the ANS to…

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Ask a Curator: Object Numbers
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Ask a Curator: Object Numbers
By David Yoon

This is part an ongoing series that answers your questions about our collections. If there’s something you would like to know…

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