Seleucid Coins Online (SCO) has received a major new a set of data for around 6,500 coins in the Bibliothèque nationale de France collection. The information is connected to URIs defined in PELLA and SCO. This latest data set includes 4,450 coins from the Seleucid Empire. This nearly doubles the number of specimens available in SCO. The American Numismatic Society has contributed data on about 4,800 coins. All of the coins from the BnF are photographed and high resolution imagery is available through the IIIF protocol. In total there are now nearly 9,700 physical coins linked to about 2,500 parent types in the online database.
Category: News
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Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards
The original Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards (IGCH), edited by Margaret Thompson of the ANS, Otto Mørkholm of the Danish cabinet in Copenhagen and Coin Kraay of the Heberden Coin Room in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, was published in 1973 by the ANS for the International Numismatic Commission. The work contains inventory listings of 2387 hoards, covering the whole of the ancient Greek numismatic world.
Online IGCH was devised by Sebastian Heath and Andrew Meadows as an attempt to create an open and accessible version of IGCH on the world Wide Web using the principles of Linked Open Data. The test version was housed within the Nomisma.org namespace before its migration to its own domain in February 2015.
Work on the original project was enabled by funding from the American Numismatic Society, Stanford University, and the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. Data was contributed by the Nomisma project based at Paris IV Sorbonne. Subsequent work to create the new site has been supported by the International Numismatic Council, under whose auspices the project has now been incorporated. Technical realisation of the new IGCH site is by Ethan Gruber.
The current site is a prototype, and will undergo enhancement through the course of 2015. It is the long-term aim of the project to incorporate all published Greek coin hoards as part of the broader Online Greek Coinage initiative.
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ARCHER: American Numismatic Society Archives
- collecting, preserving, and making accessible the historical records of the Society;
- using these records to promote to key audiences the Society’s heritage of success; and
- supporting the Society’s staff in their roles as scholars and administrators.
The records housed in the ANS Archives document the history and development of the Society, its collections, exhibitions, and programs, as well as the contributions of individuals and groups associated with the Society — they are unique and irreplaceable assets.
In short, the ANS Archives serves as the Society’s “institutional memory.”
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Recent articles in Australasian Coin & Banknote Magazine
We have recently published online three more articles by Dr Peter Lewis in the Australasian Coin & Banknote Magazine:
February 2019 – The Coins of Tarsus, Part 1
December 2018 / January 2019 – An Interesting Byzantine Coin from the 11th Century
November 2018 – Griffins -
Travelling exhibitions
The Centre for Coins, Culture and Religious History has several curated sets of historical material that are available for loan to schools, churches and community groups.
Exhibition sets that are currently available include the following, and more sets will be created over time:
34 coins from the seventh century BCE to the third century CE. Each coin is attached to an A4 card. The city and its connection with St Paul are explained.
35 coins from the fifth century BCE to the third century CE. Each coin is attached to an A4 card by a ribbon. Tarsus was the home-town of St Paul.
There are 23 coins from the beginning of coinage in the 7thcentury BC to 2018. There are also some large Roman coins for the students to handle. Each coin is attached to an A4 card by a ribbon. Four of the coins are replicas.
Stamps, coins and medals illustrate the life of Albert Schweitzer, the famous medical missionary and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The exhibits include letters hand-written by Schweitzer.
Bible manuscripts and early printed Bibles tell the story of how the Bible came to be written in English. The exhibition includes a page from a first edition copy of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament
Manuscripts and printed books are used to illustrate the history of liturgy and to explain what liturgy means. The emphasis is on what the major denominations have in common.
The display consists of 4 parts: 1. MSS before the printing press, including a papyrus fragment from the first century CE; 2. Devotional works (Books of Hours) and music texts; 3. Printed documents and other historical materials; 4. Coins, icons and other items.
For more information please visit the CCCRH website or contact Dr Lewis at pelew3@gmail.com
- The aim of these travelling exhibitions is to stimulate interest in the history of Christianity.
- Each exhibition consists of a number of items such as coins, Bible manuscripts and maps. A PowerPoint presentation explains each exhibition.
- CCCRH researcher, Dr Peter Lewis, sets up the display in consultation with college staff. It can be supervised by RE teachers, chaplains and librarians, and suitable sites include the college library. Usually, an exhibition is at a college for a week. Dr Lewis can show the PowerPoint presentation to staff after setting up the display. He can also make prior visits.
- Questionnaires for students to complete are available. Possible student projects include inviting each student to “adopt” an item. They would have to learn about it and explain it to other students or write a one-page essay. The prize could be an ancient coin.
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Searchable Coin Auction Database Upgrade
The ancient coin search service (acsearch) has recently announced a significant upgrade to the scope of its database.
acsearch.info is an auction database containing numismatic auctions from various renowned international auction houses. The database in part goes back more than 17 years and contains pictures, descriptions and realized prices in several currencies.
The official announcement reads as follows:
The long-awaited acsearch image search has successfully completed the beta phase and is now available to all users. With this great new feature you can quickly and easily find entries of the same coin or die-matching coins in our archive. Areas of application include pedigree research, die studies, coin attributions, etc. The search works in real time and results are displayed within a few seconds. For an optimal search performance, please read the usage instructions.
Due to the complex and expensive infrastructure, the acsearch image search is subject to a fee (starting from 0.70 € per search).
All premium users receive 20 free search credits as a thank you for their support.
