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5 AUGUST 2010
A 150TH ANNIVERSARY
The British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals is about to celebrate its 150th birthday. It was in November 1860 that the Museum trustees decided to divide up the Department of Antiquities, over which Edward Hawkins had presided for more than thirty years, and in the process to create a separate Department of Coins and Medals. After some months spent considering how the new structure would operate, on 2 February 1861 the trustees formally approved the appointment of three new keepers, and one week later William Vaux, the new Keeper of Coins and Medals, and his colleagues reported to the trustees ‘that they had entered upon the duties assigned to them’.
The 150th anniversary of the founding of the Department will be marked by a conference on the general subject of UK museums and the future of numismatics, to be held in the British Museum on Friday 18 February 2011. Around a dozen papers will examine different areas of numismatic activity within museums, including new sources of information and the impact numismatic research can have on both the scholarly community and the general public. Collection development, numismatic expertise, treasure, archaeology, history, art history, conservation, science, public engagement and digitisation will be among the areas covered. While also looking to the past, the primary focus will be on plans for the future.
More information will be available in due course. In the meantime, make a note of the date and, for any queries, contact Janet Larkin on jlarkin @ britishmuseum.org.
12 JULY 2010
Call for press releases from CoinsWeekly
If your museum starts a new exhibition, publishes a book or wants to spread news on the museum's staff, make it known to the international numismatic community via CoinsWeekly and MuenzenWoche.
Since October 16th, 2009, CoinsWeekly is online, a new and no-cost journal for all coin collectors with an English edition at www.coinsweekly.com and a German one at www.muenzenwoche.de.
Here some information about CoinsWeekly:
Every Friday sees a new issue providing information for anyone who likes collecting coins and wants to better assess the coin market. A comprehensive archive compiles all scientific articles published so far as well as selected news. Hence, a constantly enlarging range of interesting material is available to the collector who can choose, for instance, from
- Professional articles on numismatic-historical topics
- How-to-do-it pages for beginners
- Numismatic guidebooks to individual cities and regions
- Reports on recent events in the numismatic world
- Book presentations
- Auction sale previews
- Auction sale reviews
- Presentation of sale lists
- Related links to websites with numismatic contents
We would very much appreciate your support. So, if your museum is going to open a new exhibition, houses a colloquium, launches a website, publishes a book, wants to spread news on the museum's staff, or anything else of importance for the numismatic community, please make sure to send a press release to ukampmann@muenzenwoche.de. We want to be as international as possible!
We can publish text and pictures. Please find a link here, what your news could look like: http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/The-Spirit-of-Money/8?&id=2&type=a
Certainly we own a link collection and we would like to be as exhaustive as possible. So if your institution is missing, please send me the link! http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Links/2?=63&id=63#
We also appreciate basic reports on your museum / coin collection. Within our archive there is a lot of space for presenting your institution. If you want to see, what this could look like, here is a link to a site, where the Joanneum presents itsself at CoinsWeekly: http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/The-Coin-Cabinet-in-Schloss-Eggenberg/4?&id=182
It is very important to all of us to be as present in the Internet as possible. Please use this opportunity to make your efforts known to the numismatic community.
When you are interested in receiving every week the newsletter of CoinsWeekly in English or MuenzenWoche in German, here's the link to subscribe: http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Subscribe-to-Newsletter/29
Best regards,
Ursula Kampmann
30 MARCH 2010
EyeCatchers. 1OO sensational pieces in Geldmuseum
Admire the top-1OO of the most beautiful, rare and fascinating works from the vaults of the Money Museum. These works are shining with beauty, or are striking because of the absence of pomp and circumstance… From unique works of art to magnificent jewellery and the most beautiful coins, medals and engraved gemstones. EyeCatchers tells the stories behind these pieces and reveals why they are so very special.
There is a book available as well: Treasures: 50 highlights from the Geldmuseum. In 2004 the Geldmuseum was founded in the Netherlands. However, this young musuem presents a collection with historical roots. In 1746 stadholder William IV founded a numismatic cabinet with a collection of coins, medals and engraved gemstones that was to be the core of the collection of the Koninklijk Penningkabinet that was established in 1816. The collections of the Koninklijk Penningkabinet were joined with those of the Nederlandsche Bank, compiled since 1850, and the collection of 's-Rijks Munt which was built up from 1848. These collections are now all housed in the Geldmuseum. At present the Gelkmuseum manages an extensive collection of coins, medals, paper money, engraved gemstones and means of production - about 400.000 objects in total.
Now, for the first time, 50 treasures of this prestigious collection are highlighted in this book. It gives a richly illustrated impression of the comprehensiveness of the collection and shows how collectors and former directors have left their mark.
Published by Waanders, available in english.
Also available in english:
Omnis Potestas a Deo: power and religion on money and medals.
Published at the occasion of the of mr. B. Heemkerk as chairman of the Board of the RABO-bank, also chairman of the Board from the Geldmuseum until 2008.
'The validity of currency was derived form the power of those on whose authority the coinage had been issued. These could be states or cities, personified by emperors, kings, counts , popes and bishops. This authority was uncontested if it could be based on a supernatural or divince source. Therefore the obverse and reverse of couns from Antiquity up till today will feature temples and gods, kings and emperors who derived their authority form the Devine, and popes and bishops who besides their spiritual authority also possessed secular power.
Even in the modern, secular era since the Enlightenment, the legends on coins such as "In God we trust"or : 'God zij met ons" point to the fact that faith, also when it comes to the Mammon, ultimately comes from Above. This book offers an impression of this link between religion and coinage.
Geldmuseum, Leidseweg 90, www.geldmuseum.nl
11 JANUARY 2010
Collection of the House of Welf remains in Hanover
After a preiod of uncertainty, we are delighted to hear that the coin collection of the House of Welf will stay in Hanover. The state of Lower Saxony has bought the collection, and its many rare and important coins, for 5 million Euros. The purchase was confirmed at a 14 December 2009 meeting of the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, and the collection is now safe from dissolution.
The 40,000 coins and medals in this collection were assembled by members of the Welf dynasty from the mid-18th century. Because of the close links between Germany and the UK at that time, since the Electors of Brunswick-Lüneburg were kings of Great Britain and Ireland, there are German rarities as well as coins from the British Empire. In 1983, the House of Welf began to think of selling its collection with the aid of a British auction house, but the Deutsche Bank prevented that by acquiring the collection. Now, the collection will move to the Lower Saxony State Museum where it will continue to be curated by Reiner Cunz.
See also: http://beta.haz.de/Nachrichten/Feuilleton/Uebersicht/Niedersachsen-zahlt-fuer-Muenzkabinett-fuenf-Millionen-Euro
News items from previous years: