News
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
15 DECEMBER 2009
New Gallery at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: "Money: the value of the past"
The Ashmolean Museum reopened to the public on the 7th November 2009 after a £61M redevelopment, which includes 38 new galleries, conceptualised and designed to a display strategy ‘Crossing Cultures Crossing Time’. It was officially opened by HM the Queen on 2nd December. The numismatic collections of the Heberden Coin Room of the museum are chiefly displayed in the new ‘Money’ gallery and also in twenty-five other galleries, where they compliment other objects from the wider Ashmolean collection. Additionally, coins feature prominently in graphic elements that support displays in the entire museum.
The ‘Money’ gallery is composed of object displays and hands-on interactive components, supported by extensive graphic elements. Structurally, the gallery is divided into three main areas viz. the North and South Walls and a central aisle of free-standing cases. There is space for temporary exhibitions on the West wall.
The North and the South walls, which are long, carry two broad themes – the North wall showcases World cultures through the coinages they produced and also doubles to reflect the curatorial areas represented in the Heberden Coin Room. These displays are augmented by graphic elements such as enlarged pictures of coins and images of prints, architecture, icons and sculpture.
The South wall provides an overview of ‘Money’ through thematic displays which emphasise physical, cultural and historical aspects of Money, articulated through a selection of objects and graphic panels.
The central aisle has three important focuses – displays created for Key Stage II learning objectives, concentrating on the Greeks, the Romans in Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, the Tudors and the Victorians. The Victorians are shown through a selection of medals, rather than coins, thus bringing a significant part of the Coin Room’s non-monetary collection into the Gallery’s ambit. There are three cases, which contain ‘vista objects’, significant in their regional as well as collective historical importance, accentuated by large graphics that act as a ‘visual magnet’ for visitors. These are the Oxford Crown of Charles I, the Crondall hoard of the earliest Anglo-Saxon gold coins and the Chalgrove hoard, in which was found the second known specimen of a radiate of Domitianus, the Gallic usurper. This last case is surrounded by other displays of ‘local money’, including the Didcot hoard of Roman aurei. It also includes a section dedicated to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
The interactive elements offer educational and cultural information through tactile and visual activities such as ‘Design Your Own Coin’ and ‘Magnify Me’. There is also an enlarged model of the Oxford Crown and an electronic map that takes the viewer through Time and Space using coin-like counters.
The gallery also has graphic panels which supplement the temporary exhibition, the ‘Money’ wall and the entrance to the gallery. At the entrance, a board titled ‘What’s it Worth?’ gives an indication of prices through ages using objects on display and also doubles as a chronological guide to the gallery.
12 NOVEMBER 2009
New publication
A new book by N. Klüssendorf, Marburg (Germany), deals with numismatics and monetary history within the “concerto” of auxiliary sciences of history (e.g. palaeography, heraldics, genealogy). This book argues that more work between institutions, like museums, libraries, research institutes, universities, academies, and learned societies, is needed. Though highly specialized, all disciplines dealing with money share an important function in contributing to general history. NIKLOT KLÜSSENDORF, Münzkunde: Basiswissen (Hahnsche Historische Hilfswissenschaften, vol. 5), Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung (2009), 128 pp., 39 figs., Pb. € 14,80.
3 AUGUST 2009
INLN International Numismatic Libraries’ Network
The foundation for co-operation and exchange of information and knowledge
Ans ter Woerds, librarian at the Geldmuseum (Money Museum) in Utrecht, the Netherlands, has sent a survey to all ICOMON members and the members of the German numismatic libraries’ network last March, in order to get information on the numismatic library situation.
Feedback shows that 26 libraries want to become member of the International Numismatic Libraries’ Network (INLN). Aims of the network are to co-operate, exchange information and knowledge, and work in projects together.
The official founding meeting of INLN will be held at the XIVth International Numismatic Congress in Glasgow, on Wednesday September 2, from 11.00-13.00 in the Hunterian Art Gallery Lecture Theatre. Results of the survey will be presented, different participants will give a presentation on their library services, the INLN will be officially established and there will be discussions about the goals and how to realize them.
All congress delegates are welcome to attend the meeting.
There will be another meeting on Thursday September 3rd, from 16.00-17.30 in Wolfson B, with general results of the survey, the outcome of the meeting of September 2nd, including discussions with delegates on how INLN can be of use to them.
For more information, please contact Ans ter Woerds, Geldmuseum, Utrecht (a.ter.woerds@geldmuseum.nl) and Elizabeth Hahn, ANS American Numismatic Society, New York (hahn@numismatics.org).
We hope to see you in Glasgow during our meetings!
8 JUNE 2009
There is exciting news from Washington, as June sees the opening of a new permanent exhivition at the Smithsonian Institution. For the first time in five years, Numismatics will once again have a permanent exhibit site at the National Museum of American History, home of the NNC – National Numismatic Collection.
Under discussion since 2005, the new display is called “Stories on Money”, and it is unlike any previous numismatic exhibit seen at the museum. It presents several insightful views into what money is – what it means, how it has looked in the past and present (and may well look in the future), and the various forms it has taken across the centuries and across the globe.
For more information: Smithsonian NMAH press release
28 JULY 2008
ICOMON members are probably wondering why they haven't received their Newsletter in many months. There are several reasons, including changes in my personal situation and work on a new, permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution (of which more later). But you haven't received a Newsletter partly because I haven't gotten enough information from members and their museums to put together a new edition - at least, not in the form I've been sending out for nearly a decade.
But I was talking with Catherine Eagleton, ICOMON'S Webmistress, and she and I came up with what we both see as a viable alternative to a twice- or thrice-yearly, formal Newsletter. She has generously given me this spot to relay to you members' news, new publications, and the like as I receive them. This represents a signal advantage, I think. Members won't have to wait weeks or even months to find out what's going on: they'll find out as soon as I find out. And the utility of the old ICOMON Newsletter (something I've always seen as a bulletin board for the enjoyment, enlightenment, and use of our members) will continue, and expand.
-R. G. Doty, Washington, 28 July 2008
HAPPENINGS
ARGENTINA- The Instituto de Numismatica e Historia de San Nicolas de los Arroyos recently celebrated its fiftieth anniverday. The celebration consisted of a two-day symposium (held 19-20 July), along with the striking of a commerative medal and publication of an exhaustive catalog of medals relating San Nicolas de los Arroyos. The Instituto is one of the longest-lived players in Argentine numismatic research, and its publications are always eagerly awaited, both within the country and well beyond.
GERMANY- Reiner Cunz has advised me that he has received a number of our early Proceedings volumes, those for Stavanger (1995) Vienna (1996), and Madrid (1999). Those interested should email him directly, at reiner.cunz@t-online.de. He also advises that the German Numismatic Commission has a new program for the promotion of young scholars, enabling them too attend and speak at the International Numismatic Congress in Glasgow (September 2009). The German Numismatic Commission is especially interested in papers on German coin hoards; Baltic hoards from the 10th and 11th centuries; modern medals and numismatics since 1870; and numismatics and museology. Interested young scholars are urged to get in touch with Professor Cunz as quickly as possible. Deadline for receipt of abstract, cv, and a list of publications is 15 February 2009.
ITALY - The Museo della Musica and Museo Archeologico have just opened a joint show in Bologna. Called Monete Sonanti (Sonorous Money), it examines the connections between music and coins and medals, drawing upon the numismatic collections of the Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna for the purpose. The display opened on 20 November and will remain on view through 18 January 2009. A series of talks and guided tours, featuring the participation of ICOMON members Paola Giovetti and Daniela Picchi, will extend over the next two months. In conjunction with the show, a concert will take place at Bologna’s Chiesa di San Giacomo Maggiore on 12 December.
SPAIN- Our colleagues at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya continue their valuable activities with two more events. The first, a symposium on local Catalonian money in medieval and modern times, took place on 22 and 24 April 2008. The second is a new numismatic exhibit, "Monedas en lluita: Catalunya a l'Europa napoleonica" ("Money in Struggle: Catalonia in Napoleonic Europe"). The display opened last June and will remain on view until the beginning of next May.
The Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunya announces its XII Curs d’història monetària d’Hispània, to be held in Barcelona, 27-28 November 2008. Coordinated by Marta Campo, this gathering will examine moneying techniques employed on the Iberian Peninsula from classical times to the early Middle Ages. Go to the museum’s website, www.mnac.cat, to learn more.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA- I mentioned above that the Smithsonian Institiution's National Numismatic Collection is creating a new, permanent display, and that it was absorbing much of my time. It's scheduled to open in March 2009, and it will consist of five different views into numismatics, numismatists, and money itself. There will be a section on the development of money in America, called "Frontiers", ranging from traditional barter objects to a new one, the credit card. This section will be joined by four others, one devoted to a Russian collector, Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovich, and his magnificent assemblage of Russian coins and medals (which came to the Smithsonian half a century ago, resulting in the strongest Russian collection outside Russia itself); a second on women, goddesses and actual people, and the ways in which an attribute (Liberty) gained a permanent place on American coinage and the forms she assumed once she arrived; a third, "Three into One", describing how the concept of coinage arose in three different places, in three different forms, then came together in one, the mass-produced, modern world coin; and a final look at money and all the forms and materials it has embraced over the centuries. This final section bears the working title "Bet You Didn't Know that...", and its big idea is to make our visitors think about something they take for granted in new ways.
NEW PUBLICATIONS
I can't leave without mentioning a superb new book, editied by Lucia Travaini and Alessia Bolis. It's called Conii e scene di coniazione, and it consists of over a dozen articles on many aspects of numismatics across the centuries. The contributions are in Italian, Spanish, French, German, and English, and the book was published by Edizioni Quasar, Rome. You can learn more about it by emailing the publisher at qn@edizioniquasar.it.