Numismatics

Numismatics (Latin: numisma, nomisma, "coin"; from the Greek: νομίζειν nomízein, "to use
according to law") is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money,
and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors
of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media
used to resolve debts and the exchange of goods. Lacking a structured monetary system,
people in the past lived in a barter society and used locally-found items of inherent or implied
value. A few people today still use bartering in absence of a monetary system. Early money
used by people is referred to as "Odd and Curious", but the use of other goods in barter
exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating currency(e.g., cigarettes in prison).
The Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change
in lambskins.[1] The lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horse is not.
Many objects have been used for centuries, such as cowry shells, precious metals and gems.

Today, most transactions take place by a form of payment with either inherent, standardized
or credit value. Numismatic value may be used to refer to the value in excess of the monetary
value conferred by law. This is also known as the "collector value." For example, a collector
may be willing to pay far more than 50 cents for a U.S. half dollar coin, given their low
circulation.

Economic and historical studies of money's use and development are an integral part of the
numismatists' study of money's physical embodiment.

History of money
Main article: History of money

Money itself must be a scarce good. Many items have been used as money, from naturally
scarce precious metals and cowry shells through cigarettes to entirely artificial money such
as banknotes. 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.
History of numismatics

A Roman denarius, a standardized silver coin.

Coin collecting may have existed in ancient times. Caesar Augustus gave "coins of every
device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money" as Saturnalia gifts.[2]

Petrarch, who wrote in a letter that he was often approached by vinediggers 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.[3]. 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 organized 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 as well the coins were seen more as archaeological objects. 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.[4] 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.

Modern numismatics
Modern numismatics is the study of the coins of the mid 17th to the 21st century, the period of
machine struck coins. 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 lies frequently 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 socio-political context of coin mintings are also matters of interest.

Subfields
Main articles: Exonumia, Notaphily, and Scripophily

Exonumia 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, counterstamped 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 USA, Germany and France began publishing their
respective national catalogues of paper money, which represented major points of reference
literature.

Scripophily is the study and collection of stocks and Bonds. It is an interesting 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 a stock in a successor company.
Numismatists
The term numismatist applies to collectors and coin dealers as well as scholars using coins
as source or studying coins.

The first group chiefly derive pleasure from the simple ownership of monetary devices and
studying these coins as private amateur scholars. In the classical field amateur collector
studies have achieved quite remarkable progress in the field. Examples are Walter Breen, a
well-known example of a noted numismatist who was not an avid collector, and King Farouk I
of Egyptwas an avid collector who had very little interest in numismatics. Harry Bass by
comparison was a noted collector who was also a numismatist.

The second group are the coin dealers. Often called professional numismatists, they
authenticate or grade coins for commercial purposes. The buying and selling of coin
collections by numismatists who are professional dealers advances the study of money, and
expert numismatists are consulted by historians, museum curators, and archaeologists.

The third category are scholar numismatists working in public collections, universities or as
independent scholars acquiring knowledge about monetary devices, their systems, their
economy and their historical context. Coins are especially relevant as source in the pre-
modern period.

List of important numismatic scholars

 Andreas Alföldi (1895-1981)

 Joseph von Arneth
 Simone Assemani (1752-1820)
 Francesco Maria Avellino
 Ernest Babelon
 Churchill Babington
 Anselmo Banduri
 Osmund Bopearachchi
 Bartolomeo Borghesi
 Stefano Borgia
 Laura Breglia
 Guillaume Budé
 Erich B. Cahn
 Herbert A. Cahn
 Carlo Ottavio, Count Castiglione
 Celestino Cavedoni
 Secondina Cesano
 Henry Cohen
 Leodegar Coraggioni
 Michael H. Crawford
 Théophile Marion Dumersan
 Joseph Eckhel
 Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher
 Giuseppe Fiorelli
 Peter Robert Franke
 Jean-Baptiste Frener
 Julius Friedländer
 Christian Martin Joachim Frähn
 Andrea Fulvio
 Andreas E. Furtwängler
 Raffaele Garrucci
 Ercole Gnecchi
 Francesco Gnecchi
 Philip Grierson
 Claude Gros de Boze
 Karl Ludwig Grotefend
 Ernst Haeberlin
 Nicola Francesco Haym (1678-1729)
 Barclay Vincent Head
 Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer
 Hans-Jörg Kellner
 Niklot Klüßendorf
 Konrad Kraft
 Ernst Lejeune
 Christian Leonhard Leucht
 Arnold Luschin
 Leo Mildenberg
 Theodor Mommsen
 Louis Robert
 Desiré-Raoul Rochette
 Joaquín Rubio y Muñoz
 Eduard Rüppell
 Antonio Salinas
 Camillo Serafini
 Adolf Soetbeer
 Attilio Stazio
 Theodor Struve
 Edward Allen Sydenham
 Max Ritter von Wilmersdörffer
 Jörgen Zoega

Submitted by

M.Syed Aslin
VI Std ‘A’