Pocket Change Blog

A new study, published by Paul N. Pearson et al. last week in Plos One, has made a sensation in global news by claiming to have authenticated several unusual gold coins in the Hunterian Museum collection in Glasgow which seem to feature an otherwise unknown Roman emperor Sponsianus. The coins, which numismatists have long believed to be early 18th-century forgeries, include two gold coins naming the Roman emperor Philip I or II, another naming Gordian III, and a fourth naming a Sponsianus, who is known only from a few examples of this coin type (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Gold coin…

November 29, 2022

ANS President Edward T. Newell and his rabbit review the contents of a volume of the American Journal…

The American Numismatic Society (ANS) is pleased to announce the publication The Early Betts Medal Companion: Medals of America’s Discovery…

The newest Roman Republican Die Project (RRDP) data release includes seven control-marked issues which are part of the subset of…

Sudarso, Kerokan Session, 1992, oil on canvas.

As numismatists, we know that coins have many, many functions and characteristics. Some of…

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

Last month, along with most of the ANS staff, I attended the International Numismatic Congress in Poland. It was a…

The recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II (r. 1952–2022) and the elevation King Charles III has prompted questions about how…

It has been roughly two weeks since the close of the INC 2022 – XVI International Numismatic Congress in Warsaw,…

The Official Medal of the XVI International Numismatic Congress in Warsaw, Poland.

Two weeks ago, the American Numismatic Society’s offices closed…

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following post is by 2022 ANS Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar in Numismatics student Eduardo García-Molina…

As part of a longer trip abroad, ANS President Ute Wartenberg, together with her husband Jonathan Kagan, went to southwestern…