Instead, the curators are the key to unlocking not only the actual physical location of the coins and medals, but also to illuminating the meaning and relevance of the collection. When students and collectors visit the ANS, they rely on the guidance and assistance of the curators. Further, the curators conduct the bulk of the scholarly research that constitutes such a vital part of the ANS, as indicated in its Mission Statement. Absent that scholarship, the coins and medals in the ANS collection are simply mute objects. With scholarship, they become a link to past societies and civilizations, revealing information about how these societies lived, worked and governed.
Scholarship keeps the collection vital, alive and growing.
Already, the ANS has suspended the Graduate Seminar for 1999 and 2000. Indeed, because numismatics is a highly-specialized field, the departure of the current curators would be an irrecoverable loss. The ANS buyout plan follows closely on the heels of ANS management's recently-announced plan to relocate the ANS collection to a new site at 140 William Street in downtown Manhattan. Much of these costs have been funded by withdrawals from the ANS endowment. Although not confirmed, there has been talk that the ANS collection may be used as collateral to secure a loan.