“Numismatics” in E. Jeffreys, J. Haldon & R. Cormack (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Byzantium (Oxford University Press), Oxford, 2008, 157-175. (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Classical Review, 2021
Numismatics has often been seen as a rather arcane and obscure discipline, which circuits like a satellite around the major planets of Classics, History and Archaeology. K. bookends this work by discussing a paper written by A.H.M. Jones, in 1956, in which he outlined what he thought was needed from numismatic research. This enables a succinct conclusion to the book, where K. is able to report that enormous strides have been made in the last 60 years, raising the profile of numismatics and showing its real importance to other branches of historical and archaeological research. Although the scope of this book is very broad, it is highly condensed, and so there is no room for any depth of discussion in this short review. At the outset, I can only strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in the Roman world should read this work. K. explains how coins can be used as both historical and archaeological sources, showing how more critical and quantitative methodologies have led to important developments in the assistance of both disciplines. She identifies two key themes: first, coins as a tool of political communication; second, the function of coins as monetary instruments. I believe that one should also add the nonmonetary functions of coins, such as in ritual.
Working Abstract: There has been considerable interest in the history of numismatics and coin collecting in recent years as evidenced by the publication of significant works on the subject, including The Hidden Treasures of this Happy Island: A History of Numismatics in Britain from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (Burnett, 2020) and Ars Critica Numaria: Joseph Eckhel and the Transformation of Ancient Numismatics (Woytek and Williams, eds., 2022). An insufficiently discussed aspect of this history is the role of antiquarians known primarily for their contribution to the study of ancient art to the development of numismatics – in particular Greek numismatics – in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the foundations they laid for subsequent developments which culminated in Barclay V. Head’s Historia numorum (1887). This lecture will discuss aspects of the development of Greek numismatics at the turn of the nineteenth century by focusing on the contribution of some of the most distinguished antiquarians and art connoisseurs of the period, and the way that problems posed by the study of ancient art in turn stimulated important questions and advanced knowledge about Greek coins. Building on the work of François de Callataÿ and Andrew Burnett on the significance of coins to Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), generally regarded as ‘the father of art history and archaeology’, this lecture will shed new light on the contribution to the study of numismatics of antiquarians who followed on his footsteps, including Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818), Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824), and Taylor Combe (1774-1826).
Numismatics – Coins and Coin Circulation from the 7th to the 11th Centuries
Money as a means of coordinating human decisions and economic exchange is a complex social invention. It must always adjust to the prevailing economic, political and juridical conditions. Seen from another angle, its design and evolution reveal much about the societies creating it. The history of coinages within the Islamic Empire is outlined from the 7th to the 11th century. Keywords; Numismatics, Economic History, Umayyads, Abbasids, Buyids, Samanids
Rethinking Numismatics: the archaeology of coins.
This paper sets out to re-member coins into archaeological discourse. It is argued that coins, as part of material culture, need to be examined within the theoretical framework of historical archaeology and material-culture studies. Through several case studies we demonstrate how coins, through their integration of text, image and existence as material objects, offer profound insights not only into matters of economy and the ‘big history’ of issuers and state organization but also into ‘small histories’, cultural values and the agency of humans and objects. In the formative period of archaeology in the 19th century the study of coins played an important role in the development of new methods and concepts. Today, numismatics is viewed as a field apart. The mutual benefits of our approach to the fields of archaeology and numismatics highlight the need for a new and constructive dialogue between the disciplines. Keywords coins; historical archaeology; material culture; academic discipline; discourse; agency; materiality