Numismatist

Numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin numismatis, genitive of numisma). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coins (and possibly, other currency) in object-based research. Although use of the term numismatics was first recorded in English in 1799, people had been collecting and studying coins long before then all over the world. (The branch of numismatics that deals with the study and collection of paper currency and banknotes by notaphilists is called Notaphily)
The first group chiefly may 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 include Walter Breen, a noted numismatist who was not an avid collector, and King Farouk I of Egypt was 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 advance the study of money, and expert numismatists are consulted by historians, museum curators, and archaeologists. See, for example, the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN) and the British Numismatic Trade Association (BNTA).
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 a source in the pre-modern period.
Training and recognition
There are very few academic institutions around the world that offer formal training in numismatics. Some may offer numismatics as part of a course in classical studies, ancient history, history or archaeology. Scholar numismatists may focus on numismatics at the postgraduate level, where the training is more research-based. As a result, most scholar numismatists will approach numismatics from within another academic discipline (e.g. history, archaeology, ancient or modern languages, metal sciences), perhaps after attending a numismatic summer school, usually based where there is an excellent coin collection. Recognition of scholarly numismatic expertise may be in the form of a postgraduate qualification, and/or in the form of a medal awarded by a numismatic society: for example, the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society, which may be awarded to scholar numismatists of any nationality.
Donald H. Kagin earned the first PhD in Numismatics granted in the United States in 1979.
Numismatic institutes
The Institute for Numismatics and History of Money Vienna (Austria)
Indian Institute for Research in Numismatic Studies, Nasik (India)
International Centre for Numismatic Studies, Naples (Italy)
Numismatic summer schools
American Numismatic Association Summer Seminar
American Numismatic Society
British Museum
Radboud University Nijmegen (RU) and the Netherlands Institute at Athens (NIA) Summer School
Numismatic organizations (selection)
American Numismatic Association
American Numismatic Society
(Spanish Numismatic Society)
British Art Medal Society
British Association of Numismatic Societies
British Numismatic Society
International Bank Note Society
International Numismatic Council organises the International Numismatic Congress, and publishes the Survey of Numismatic Research.
Israel Numismatic Society
(Royal Dutch Numismatic Society)
Money and Medals Network (UK)
(Berlin Numismatic Society)
Oriental Numismatic Society
(Austrian Numismatic Society)
Royal Numismatic Society (UK)
Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft/Société Suisse de Numismatique/Società Svizzera di Numismatica/Swiss Numismatic Society
Società Numismatica Italiana (Italian Numismatic Society)
Royal Numismatic Society of Belgium (Société Royale de Numismatique de Belgique)
(French Numismatic Society)
(Swedish Numismatic Society)
Biographical resources
As scholar numismatists work on coins (and related objects) within their particular area of interest (e.g. a particular part of the world, a particular period of history, or a particular culture), they are often known in those fields, as well as in numismatics. Biographical resources relating specifically to numismatists include the following:
Manville, H.E., Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Numismatics, Encyclopaedia of British Numismatics. Volume IV (London, 2009)
Smith, Pete:, American Numismatic Biographies (1992).
"Numismatic Who's Who", in Coins Weekly.
de Callataÿ, F., Portraits of Famous Numismatists who died before 1800
de Callataÿ, F., Portraits of Famous Numismatists who died after 1800
Famous Numismatists - Les grands numismates, on the International Numismatic Council webpage
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatic Biographies - focus on American numismatists
Numismatics - Biographical Information, on The E-Sylum
List of scholar numismatists
Richard Abdy
Mikhail Abramzon
Carmen Alfaro Asins (1952–2005)
Andreas Alföldi (1895–1981)
R. Alföldi
Martin Allen (numismatist)
Michael Alram
Michel Amandry
Ermanno A Arslan
Philip Attwood
Augusto Carlos Teixeira de Aragão
Marion Archibald (1935–2016)
Carmen Arnold-Biucchi
Simone Assemani (1752–1820)
Ernest Babelon (1854–1924)
Churchill Babington
Paul Balog
Anselmo Banduri
Jean-Jacques Barthélemy Garde du Cabinet du roi (1754–1795)
Pierre Bastien (1912–2010)
Georges Bataille
Khadijeh (Zohrer) Baseri
G. Belloni
Peter Berghaus (1919–2012)
Jacob de Bie
Mark Blackburn (1953–2011)
Roger Bland
Osmund Bopearachchi
Bartolomeo Borghesi
Howard Franklin Bowker
Robert Bracey
Pierre-Napoléon Breton
Agnes Baldwin Brett
Andrew Brown
Guido Bruck
Patrick Bruun
Guillaume Budé
Andrew Burnett
Aleksander Bursche
Kevin Butcher
Herbert A. Cahn (1915–2002)
Mando Caramessini-Oeconomides (1927–2015)
Dario Calomino
Ian Carradice
Francesco Carelli
Robert Carson (1918–2006)
Karel Castelin
Gabriele Lancillotto Castelli (1727–1792)
Celestino Cavedoni
Secondina Lorenza Cesano (1879–1973)
Elvira Clain-Stefanelli (1914–2001)
Joan Clarke
Henry Cohen
Barrie Cook
Esprit-Marie Cousinéry (1747–1833).
Michael Crawford
Joe Cribb
Sylvester Sage Crosby (1831–1914)
M. Crusafont i Sabater
Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
Hermann Dannenberg (1824–1905)
François de Callatay
Elena Abramovna Davidovich
G. Demski
Georges Depeyrot
Amelia Dowler
Théophile Marion Dumersan
Joseph Hilarius Eckhel (1737–1798)
Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher
Elizabeth Errington
Warren Esty
Helen Farquhar
Giuseppe Fiorelli
Martin Folkes
Julius Friedländer
Nina Andreevna Frolova (1936–2015)
Andrea Fulvio
Raffaele Garrucci
H.U. Geiger
A. Geiser
Girish Chandra
Shpresa Gjongecaj
Francesco Gnecchi
Giovanni Gorini
Michael Grant (1914–2004)
Philip Grierson (1910–2006)
Claude Gros de Boze
P.L. Gupta (Parmeshwari Lal Gupta) (1914–2001)
Tony Hackens
Wolfgang Hahn
Nicola Francesco Haym (1678–1729)
Barclay Vincent Head (1844–1914)
Stefan Heidemann
David Hendin
George Hill (1867–1948)
Thomas Hockenhull
Chris Howgego
Octavian Iliescu (1919–2009)
Lutz Ilisch
Peter Ilisch
Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer (1838–1920)
Lyce Jankowski
Kenneth Jenkins (1918–2005)
A. Johnston
Mark Jones (museum director)
Hans-Jörg Kellner (1920–2015)
John Kent (1928–2000)
Ryszard Kiersnowski (1925–2006)
Ulrich Klein
Eva Kolníková
Koray Konuk
Andrzej Kunisz
Jean Lafaurie (1914–2008)
Georges Le Rider (1928–2014)
Ivar Leimus
Nicholas Lowick
George MacDonald (1862–1940)
Dorota Malarczyk
Brita Malmer (1925–2013)
Joel L. Malter
Harold Mattingly
Nicholas Mayhew
Andrew Meadows
Tony Merson (1950–2016)
Ya'akov Meshorer (1935–2004)
Michael Metcalf
William Metcalf
Vincenco Mirabella (1570–1624)
Jens-Christian Moesgaard
Theodor Mommsen
T. Sam N. Moorhead
Cécile Morrisson
Nikola Moushmov
B. N. Mukherjee (1932–2013)
A. K. Narain (1925–2013)
Edward T. Newell
Eric P. Newman
Rosa Norström
Ernest Oberlaender
Carlo Ottavio, Count Castiglione
Bernhard Overbeck (1942–2018)
Filippo Paruta (–1629)
Vasiliki Penna (1951–2018)
Pippa Pearce
Elizabeth Pirie
Arent Pol
Adrian Popescu
Vsevolod M. Potin (1918–2005)
Constantin Preda (1925–2008)
Martin Price (numismatist)
P.P. Ripolles
Louis Robert
Anne Strachan Robertson (1910–1997)
Desiré-Raoul Rochette
A. Rovelli
Joaquín Rubio y Muñoz
Eduard Rüppell
Andrea Saccoci
Antonio Salinas
Simone Scheers
Gustave Schlumberger
Edith Schönert-Geiß
Dietrich W.H. Schwarz (1913–2000)https://www.inc-cin.org/obituaries.html
Jirí Sejbal (1929–2004)
Charles Seltman
Camillo Serafini
Jules Silvestre (1841–1918)
Adolf Soetbeer
Dmitry Sontsov
Frederic Soret
Attilo Stazio (1923–2010)
Johann Gustav Stickel
Stanislaw Suchodolski
Charles Surasky
Ioannis Svoronos (1863–1922)
Francois Thierry (numismatist)
Rudi Thomsen (1918–2004)
Victor Tourneur
Lucia Travaini
Oluf Gerhard Tychsen
David Vagi
Leandre Villaronga i Garriga (1919–2015)
Johan van Heesch
Dorothy B. Waage
Helen Wang
Raymond Weiller
Gareth Williams
Yordanka Youroukova
Benedikt Zaech
Jörgen Zoega
Mohit Kapoor
Alexander Nikolaevich Zograf
See also
List of coin collectors
References