Pocket Change Blog

Pocket Change is the official blog of the American Numismatic Society.

Artifacts of Apostasy
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Artifacts of Apostasy
By Austin Andrews

Historians and poets alike have all had their say about the quirks of the personality, reign, and life of the Roman emperor Julian (331–363 CE). To the late eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon, in his much-cited Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Julian was a doomed tragic hero; to the early twentieth-century poet C. P. Cavafy, he was snide, sharp, and cowardly; today, many contemporary scholars note how Julian snubbed what he saw as newfangled “takes” on conventional wisdom. Julian’s life is one that is at once well documented and widely studied, but, interestingly, poorly known to the general public….

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ANS Wins 8 Numismatic Literary Guild Awards
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ANS Wins 8 Numismatic Literary Guild Awards
By The American Numismatic Society

August 22, 2022

The Numismatic Literary Guild honored the ANS with 8 awards at the recent American Numismatic Association 2022 World’s…

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Goloid Dollars: America’s Electrum Coinage
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Goloid Dollars: America’s Electrum Coinage
By Jesse Kraft

The discovery of vast amounts of gold in California upset the ratio between gold and silver, to the point where…

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More Control-Marked Issues Added to RRDP
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More Control-Marked Issues Added to RRDP
By Alice Sharpless

Another batch of Roman Republican issues is now available through RRDP! The new release has brought the total number of…

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Long Table 104. Portraits of Women on Roman Coinage in...
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Long Table 104. Portraits of Women on Roman Coinage in the Late Republic and Early Roman Empire Part II
By The American Numismatic Society

Join Andrew M. Burnett Assistant Curator of Roman Numismatics Dr. Lucia Carbone for the second half of her talk…

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Octavia Minor, a Wonder of a Woman
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Octavia Minor, a Wonder of a Woman
By Lucia Carbone

Caesar was exceedingly fond of his sister,who was, as the saying is, a wonder of a woman.
(Plutarch, Life of Antony…

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Long Table 103. Another Cistophoric Mystery: The ATRA Series and...
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Long Table 103. Another Cistophoric Mystery: The ATRA Series and Its Role in the Late-Republican Coinage from the Province of Asia
By Emma Pratte

Join Antonello Mastronardi, PhD candidate in Classics at the University of Michigan and current intern at the ANS, as he…

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Coins and Archaeology on the Island of Stromboli
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Coins and Archaeology on the Island of Stromboli
By David Yoon

Before the development of modern technologies like steamships and the railroad, travel and transportation were very significant limiting factors for…

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Long Table 102. Numismatics and Sensitive History: Perception of Iconography...
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Long Table 102. Numismatics and Sensitive History: Perception of Iconography in Modern Times
By Emma Pratte

While studying iconography on coins is a major pillar of ancient numismatics, it has been curiously ignored for modern…

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The So-Called “Pirate Coins”: From Myth to Reality
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The So-Called “Pirate Coins”: From Myth to Reality
By Emma Pratte

with Dr. Jérôme Jambu (Université de Lille)

In the collective imagination, pirates are inseparable from their treasure chests filled…

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Long Table 101. Portraits of Women on Roman Coinage in...
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Long Table 101. Portraits of Women on Roman Coinage in the Late Republic and Early Roman Empire
By Emma Pratte

Dr. Lucia Carbone the Andrew M. Burnett Assistant Curator of Roman Numismatics, will discuss the appearance of portraits of…

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French Coins in America or French American Coins? (and which...
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French Coins in America or French American Coins? (and which America?)
By The American Numismatic Society

By Jérôme Jambu, Visiting Professor, Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar in Numismatics. Professor of Modern History, University of Lille…

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