Numismatics

Numismatics is the study or collection of

currency, including coins, tokens, paper
money, medals and related objects.

Specialists, known as numismatists, are

often characterized as students or
collectors of coins, but the discipline also
includes the broader study of money and
other means of payment used to resolve
debts and exchange goods.
 Coin collectors and enthusiasts at an
exhibition organized by the
Numismatic Society of Calcutta,
Kolkata, West Bengal

The earliest forms of money used by

people are categorised by collectors as
"odd and curious",[1] but the use of other
goods in barter exchange is excluded,
even where used as a circulating currency
(e.g., cigarettes or instant noodles in
prison).[2] As an example, the Kyrgyz
people used horses as the principal
currency unit, and gave small change in
lambskins;[3] the lambskins may be
suitable for numismatic study, but the
horses are not. Many objects have been
used for centuries, such as cowry shells,
precious metals, cocoa beans, large
stones, and gems.

Etymology

First attested in English in 1829, the word

numismatics comes from the adjective
numismatic, meaning "of coins". It was
borrowed in 1792 from French
numismatique, itself a derivation from Late
Latin numismatis, genitive of numisma, a
variant of nomisma meaning "coin".[4][5]
Nomisma is a latinisation of the Greek
νόμισμα (nomisma) which means "current
coin/custom",[6] which derives from
νομίζειν (nomizein), "to hold or own as a
custom or usage, to use customarily",[7] in
turn from νόμος (nomos), "usage,
custom",[8] ultimately from νέμειν
(nemein), "to dispense, divide, assign,
keep, hold".[9]

History of money

Throughout its history, money itself has

been made to be a scarce good, although
it does not have to be. Many materials
have been used to form money, from
naturally scarce precious metals and
cowry shells through cigarettes to entirely
artificial money, called fiat money, such as
banknotes. Many complementary
currencies use time as a unit of measure,
using mutual credit accounting that keeps
the balance of money intact.

Modern money (and most ancient money

too) is essentially a token – an
abstraction. Paper currency is perhaps the
most common type of physical money
today. However, goods such as gold or
silver retain many of the essential
properties of money, such as price
fluctuation and limited supply. However,
these goods are not controlled by one
single authority.
History of numismatics

A Roman denarius, a standardized

silver coin

Coin collecting may have possibly existed

in ancient times. Augustus gave "coins of
every device, including old pieces of the
kings and foreign money" as Saturnalia
gifts.[10]

Petrarch, who wrote in a letter that he was

often approached by vine diggers with old
coins asking him to buy or to identify the
ruler, is credited as the first Renaissance
collector. Petrarch presented a collection
of Roman coins to Emperor Charles IV in
1355.

The first book on coins was De Asse et

Partibus (1514) by Guillaume Budé.[11]
During the early Renaissance ancient
coins were collected by European royalty
and nobility. Collectors of coins were Pope
Boniface VIII, Emperor Maximilian of the
Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV of France,
Ferdinand I, Elector Joachim II of
Brandenburg who started the Berlin coin
cabinet and Henry IV of France to name a
few. Numismatics is called the "Hobby of
Kings", due to its most esteemed
founders.

Professional societies organised in the

19th century. The Royal Numismatic
Society was founded in 1836 and
immediately began publishing the journal
that became the Numismatic Chronicle.
The American Numismatic Society was
founded in 1858 and began publishing the
American Journal of Numismatics in 1866.

In 1931 the British Academy launched the

Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum publishing
collections of Ancient Greek coinage. The
first volume of Sylloge of Coins of the
British Isles was published in 1958.

In the 20th century, coins gained

recognition as archaeological objects, and
scholars such as Guido Bruck of the
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
realized their value in providing a temporal
context and the difficulty that curators
faced when identifying worn coins using
classical literature. After World War II in
Germany, a project, Fundmünzen der Antike
(Coin finds of the Classical Period) was
launched to register every coin found
within Germany. This idea found
successors in many countries.
In the United States, the US Mint
established a coin cabinet in 1838 when
chief coiner Adam Eckfeldt donated his
personal collection.[12] William E. Du Bois'
Pledges of History... (1846) describes the
cabinet.

C. Wyllys Betts' American colonial history

illustrated by contemporary medals (1894)
set the groundwork for the study of
American historical medals.

Helen Wang's "A short history of Chinese

numismatics in European languages"
(2012–2013) gives an outline history of
Western countries' understanding of
Chinese numismatics.[13] Lyce Jankowski's
Les amis des monnaies is an in-depth
study of Chinese numismatics in China in
the 19th century.[14]

Modern numismatics

Two 20 kr gold coins from the

Scandinavian Monetary Union

Modern numismatics is the study of the

coins of the mid-17th century onward, the
period of machine-struck coins.[15] Their
study serves more the need of collectors
than historians, and it is more often
successfully pursued by amateur
aficionados than by professional scholars.
The focus of modern numismatics
frequently lies in the research of
production and use of money in historical
contexts using mint or other records in
order to determine the relative rarity of the
coins they study. Varieties, mint-made
errors, the results of progressive die wear,
mintage figures, and even the
sociopolitical context of coin mintings are
also matters of interest.

Subfields

Exonumia (UK English:

Paranumismatica)[16] is the study of coin-
like objects such as token coins and
medals, and other items used in place of
legal currency or for commemoration. This
includes elongated coins, encased coins,
souvenir medallions, tags, badges,
counter-stamped coins, wooden nickels,
credit cards, and other similar items. It is
related to numismatics proper (concerned
with coins which have been legal tender),
and many coin collectors are also
exonumists.

Notaphily is the study of paper money or

banknotes. It is believed that people have
been collecting paper money for as long
as it has been in use. However, people only
started collecting paper money
systematically in Germany in the 1920s,
particularly the Serienscheine (Series
notes) Notgeld. The turning point occurred
in the 1970s when notaphily was
established as a separate area by
collectors. At the same time, some
developed countries such as the United
States, Germany, and France began
publishing their respective national
catalogs of paper money, which
represented major points of reference
literature.
 Alexander the Great memorial
tetradrachm from the Temnos Mint
c. 188–170 BC

Scripophily is the study and collection of

companies' shares and bonds certificates.
It is an area of collecting due to both the
inherent beauty of some historical
documents as well as the interesting
historical context of each document.
Some stock certificates are excellent
examples of engraving. Occasionally, an
old stock document will be found that still
has value as stock in a successor
company.
See also

Awards for numismatics

Glossary of numismatics
Numismatic associations
List of numismatic collections
List of numismatic journals
List of numismatists

Further reading

Krmnicek Stefan and Hadrien Rambach.

(2023). The Numismatic World in the
Long Nineteenth Century. New York:
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
 Pritsak, O. (1998). The Origins of the Old
Rus’ Weights and Monetary Systems:
Two Studies in Western Eurasian
Metrology and Numismatics in the
Seventh to Eleventh Centuries (Harvard
Series In Ukrainian Studies). Cambridge:
Harvard Ukrainian Research
Institute.[17][18]

References

1. Maurer, B. "Primitive and Nonmetallic

Money". In Yago, K.; Battilosi, S.; Cassis., Y.
(eds.). Handbook of the History of Money
and Currency. Springer. p. 87-104.
2. Gibson-Light, Michael (2018-06-01).
"Ramen Politics: Informal Money and
Logics of Resistance in the Contemporary
American Prison" (https://doi.org/10.1007/
s11133-018-9376-0) . Qualitative
Sociology. 41 (2): 199–220.
doi:10.1007/s11133-018-9376-0 (https://do
i.org/10.1007%2Fs11133-018-9376-0) .
ISSN 1573-7837 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/issn/1573-7837) . S2CID 254976793 (htt
ps://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:254
976793) .
3. Glyn Davies (1996). Chronology of Money
1900 — 1919 (http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavie
s/arian/amser/chrono14.html) . University
of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-1351-0.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200
60714171102/http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavi
es/arian/amser/chrono14.html) from the
original on 2006-07-14. Retrieved
2006-08-09.
4. Harper, Douglas. "numismatics" (https://ww
w.etymonline.com/?term=numismatics) .
Online Etymology Dictionary.
5. nomisma (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ho
pper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:
entry=nomisma) . Charlton T. Lewis and
Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on
Perseus Project.
6. νόμισμα (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ho
pper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:
entry=no/misma) . Liddell, Henry George;
Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at
the Perseus Project.
7. νομίζειν (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ho
pper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:
entry=nomi/zw) in Liddell and Scott.
8. νόμος (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hop
per/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:e
ntry=no/mos2) in Liddell and Scott.
9. νέμειν (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hop
per/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:e
ntry=ne/mw) in Liddell and Scott.
10. Suetonius, Augustus 75 on-line text (http
s://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roma
n/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.h
tml#75) Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20220731043834/https://penelope.uc
hicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Sueton
ius/12Caesars/Augustus%2A.html#75)
2022-07-31 at the Wayback Machine
11. Brigham Young University library web page
(http://net.lib.byu.edu/aldine/44Bude.htm
l) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0080725015240/http://net.lib.byu.edu/aldi
ne/44Bude.html) 2008-07-25 at the
Wayback Machine
12. Kent, Allen (1985). Encyclopedia of Library
and Information Science. p. 281. ISBN 978-
0-8247-2037-7.
13. Helen Wang, "A short history of Chinese
numismatics in European languages", in
Early China vols 35-36 (2012–2013), pp.
395-429,
14. Jankowski, Lyce (2018). Les amis des
monnaies – la sociabilité savante des
collectionneurs et numismates chinois de
la fin des Qing. Paris: Maisonneuve et
Larose nlle édition. ISBN 978-2-37701-030-
1.
15. "Collectibles" (http://www.mainecollectible
s.com/Collectibles/) . Maritime
International. Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20130914063749/http://www.mai
necollectibles.com/Collectibles/) from the
original on September 14, 2013. Retrieved
June 13, 2013.
16. The First Dictionary of Paranumismatica:
All About Tokens, Checks, Tickets, Passes,
Medalets, Counters, Tallies and Weights
(ed. Brian Edge), 1991. ISBN 978-
0951691007
17. Noonan, Thomas S. (1999). "Reviewed
work: The Origins of the Old Rus' Weights
and Monetary Systems: Two Studies in
Western Eurasian Metrology and
Numismatics in the Seventh to Eleventh
Centuries, Omeljan Pritsak". The Russian
Review. 58 (2): 319–320. JSTOR 2679589
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/2679589) .
18. Hellie, Richard (1999). "Reviewed work: The
Origins of the Old Rus' Weights and
Monetary Systems: Two Studies in Western
Eurasian Metrology and Numismatics in the
Seventh to Eleventh Centuries, Omeljan
Pritsak". Slavic Review. 58 (4): 909–910.
doi:10.2307/2697226 (https://doi.org/10.2
307%2F2697226) . JSTOR 2697226 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/2697226) .

External links

The dictionary definition of

numismatics at Wiktionary
Media related to Numismatics at
Wikimedia Commons

Portals: Numismatics
B i d i
 Business and economics
Money

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