Pocket Change

Collectively branded as Pocket Change, the ANS publishes new content frequently on its blog, in The Planchet podcast, as well as videos. Back-issues of ANS Magazine are also available.

Gilbert & Dean and Counterfeiting in Boston, 1806-1808
   ANS    
Gilbert & Dean and Counterfeiting in Boston, 1806-1808
By Matthew Wittman

A combination of restrictive regulations and lack of available specie ensured that there was a persistent dearth of coinage in the British North American colonies over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One result of this lack of “hard” money was that the British colonists were the first society in which paper money became the predominant form of monetary exchange.

Reverse of an 1760 five pound note printed by Franklin and Hall (0000.999.29334).

Despite the hopes of Benjamin Franklin and other promoters of the paper money experiment, the viability of the system was consistently threatened on two fronts. The first was the temptation that seemed to inevitably lead governments…

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ANS Magazine 2015, Issue 4
   ANS    
ANS Magazine 2015, Issue 4

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Collecting Coins and the Conflict in Syria by Ute Wartenberg Kagan

The Starosselsky Collection: Imperial Histories and Cultural Currencies…

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PELLA: Coins of the Kings of Macedonia
   ANS    
PELLA: Coins of the Kings of Macedonia
By Matthew Wittman

The American Numismatic Society has launched a digital project that promises to be an important new research tool in ancient…

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Architecture on Roman Coinage
   ANS    
Architecture on Roman Coinage
By Matthew Wittman

The American Numismatic Society is pleased to announce the publication of Monuments in Miniature: Architecture on Roman Coinage, a new book…

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The Talented Mr. Wood
   ANS    
The Talented Mr. Wood
By David Hill

American Numismatic Society

Howland Wood: long-time ANS curator, Oriental coin authority, Huntington Award winner, and…illustrator? I must admit, I didn’t know…

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Mexican-American 'Dollar,' circa 1877
   ANS    
Mexican-American 'Dollar,' circa 1877
By Matthew Wittman

A few weeks back the ANS put together a display for the U.S.-Mexican Numismatic Association that included some of the highlights of…

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Eight Antoniniani of Claudius Gothicus, 268-270 CE
   ANS    
Eight Antoniniani of Claudius Gothicus, 268-270 CE
By Matthew Wittman

Marcus Aurelius Claudius (213-270 CE) was an Illyrian of modest birth who worked his way up through the ranks of…

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Gold Medal of Martin Luther, 1521
   ANS    
Gold Medal of Martin Luther, 1521
By Matthew Wittman

One of the treasures in the American Numismatic Society’s collection is a unique gold medal depicting the German theologian Martin…

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Mysteries from the Vault: H.R.C. Clock Token
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Mysteries from the Vault: H.R.C. Clock Token

With close to a million objects in the American Numismatic Society’s collections, the curatorial team occasionally comes across items that…

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Dar al-Kutub: Collection of the Egyptian National Library
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Dar al-Kutub: Collection of the Egyptian National Library
By Matthew Wittman

The American Numismatic Society is pleased to announce, in collaboration with Dr. Jere Bacharach of the University of Washington and Dr….

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Persian Silver of Judah
   ANS    
Persian Silver of Judah
By David Hendin

Hendin-1050

The first coins with Hebrew inscriptions were struck during the period when the Achaemenid or Persian Empire ruled ancient Judah. It…

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Amasa Delano at the Lima Mint, 1805
   ANS    
Amasa Delano at the Lima Mint, 1805
By Matthew Wittman

Last weekend I finished reading Greg Grandin’s The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World (2015), which is an…

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