Doty abstract 2007

Protecting objects from conservators: a cautionary tale: Dick Doty, National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

The National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution embraces nearly two million objects – coins, notes, medals, tokens, traditional trade pieces. Understandably, the preservation of this enormous cabinet, both for present display and for future research, is a constant concern of the curatorial staff.

It is not a particular concern to the Conservation Unit attached to this museum. Years ago, its members asked for and received permission to work on outside projects, projects that brought money into the museum, and to the conservators. The result has been that, during the past few years, any request for assistance in cleaning and conserving coins and currency has fallen on deaf ears.

But Numismatics looked for and found another source of help. The cabinet contains about two hundred numismatic rarities, all American, all coins, that have piqued the interest of generations of collectors and dealers alike. When our preservation plight became known, two professional groups, NGC (Numismatic Guarantee Corporation) and NCS (Numismatic Conservation Service), offered their help. NCS would clean the coins (many of which had wax on one side: they had been mounted in a long-term display with the assistance of blobs of museum wax, adhering the coins to the display boards), and NGC would “slab” them – that is, securely fit the restored coins into two-piece, inert plastic clamshells, or “slabs”. The slabs would protect the coins from moisture and atmospheric pollution. Moreover, they would render our rarities far more difficult to steal.

We accepted these offers with thanks.

Then the personnel making up the Conservation Unit found out about our plans and vehemently opposed them. They might not have been interested in helping us, but they were dead-set against anyone else helping us either. At bottom, the whole thing came down to a struggle over power, a fight over turf, and who made decisions and who did not. Thus far, Conservation has dug in its heels and simply refused to consider any outside intervention. Numismatics is continuing to put as much pressure as possible on Conservation, meanwhile soliciting the help of the Museum Director, urging him to order the Conservation Unit (which works for him, as do we all) to assist us, or at least allow others to do so.

As I write (19 March) things are still very much in limbo, but I am cautiously optimistic that the work will get done. Our struggles may offer be of interest to other ICOMON members, who may be willing, as we once were, to avoid bothering their conservators with petty problems and questions. If we’d come to our conservators (and I speak of every department in this museum, and not just Numismatics) on a regular basis, they would not have had the free time for extracurricular activities. And we would not be in our present quandary. That’s the “cautionary” part of my title.

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