The British Museum Department of Coins and Medals is a department of the
British Museum involving the collection, research and exhibition of
numismatics, and comprising the largest library of numismatic artefacts in the
United Kingdom, including almost one million coins, medals, tokens and other related objects.[1] The collection spans the history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day, and is representative of both
Eastern and
Western numismatic traditions.
History
Numismatics constituted an important part of the 1753 bequest of
Sir Hans Sloane which formed the British Museum's original collection, comprising some 20,000 objects.[2] The collection was incorporated into the Department of Antiquities in 1807, before the establishment of a separate Coins and Medals department in 1860–1.
As in other parts of the museum, the department has been able to expand its collection by purchase, donation and bequest. The department has benefited from the munificence of collectors such as
Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode,
Sarah Banks,
Edward Hawkins, Sir
Alexander Cunningham and George Bleazby. A significant strength of the collection are British coins from all ages, which have benefited from the ancient law of
Treasure Trove. This has enabled the museum to purchase important
hoards of gold and silver coins, many of which were buried during periods of crisis or upheaval. There are approximately 9,000 coins, medals and
banknotes on display around the British Museum. More than half of these can be found in the Citi Money Gallery (Gallery 68), while the remainder form part of the permanent displays throughout the museum. Items from the full collection can be seen by the general public in the Study Room by appointment.[3]
The department celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2011.[4]
Research, publications and exhibitions
The Department has a strong research history, which underpins publications (see, for example, the
British Museum Catalogues of Coins), exhibitions[5] and other activities.
Publications associated with exhibitions
1881 A Guide to the English Medals Exhibited in the King’s Library, by Herbert A. Grueber
1881 A Guide to the Italian Medals Exhibited in the King’s Library, by C. E. Keary
1883 The British Museum [Martin] Luther Exhibition, 1883, in the Grenville Library, by George Bullen
1924 Guide to the exhibition of historical medals in the British Museum
1924 A guide to the exhibition of medals of the Renaissance in the British Museum, by G. F. Hill
1975 2000 years of coins and medals, by J. P. C. Kent
1979 Art of the Medal, by Mark Jones
1986 Money: from Cowrie shells to credit cards, by Joe Cribb
1987 Contemporary British Medals, by Mark Jones[6]
1987 As good as gold: 300 years of British banknote design, by Virginia Hewitt and John Keyworth
1990 Fake? The art of deception, by Mark Jones
1992 FIDEM XXIII: In the Round: Contemporary Art Medals of the World, ed.
Philip Attwood
1993 Silk Road coins: the Hirayama Collection. A loan exhibition at the British Museum, by Katsumi Tanabe
1993 The Hoxne Treasure: an illustrated handbook, by Roger Bland and Catherine Johns
1994 Beauty and the Banknote: images of women on paper money, by Virginia Hewitt
1995 The Banker’s Art, ed. Virginia Hewitt
1996 After Marathon: war, society and money in fifth century Greece, by
Ute Wartenberg
1998 Humphrey Cole: Mint, measurement and maps in Elizabethan England, ed. Silke Ackernann
1998 Convict love tokens: the leaden hearts the convicts left behind, by Michele Field and Timothy Millet
1999 Magic coins of Java, Bali and the Malay Peninsula, thirteenth to twentieth centuries, by Joe Cribb
1999 Metal Mirror: Coin Photographs, by Stephen Sack
1999 Size immaterial: handheld sculpture of the 1990s, by
Luke Syson
2000 Rebels, pretenders and imposters, by Clive Cheesman and Jonathan Williams[7]
2003 Italian Medals c. 1520–1600 in British public collections, by Philip Attwood[8]
In addition to being numismatists, staff of the department have also been distinguished linguists, historians, archaeologists, art historians, classicists, medievalists, orientalists, and authors:[18]
^Jones, Mark. Contemporary British medals (1986 ed.). Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications.
ISBN9780714108643.
^Cheesman & Williams (2000). Rebels, pretenders & imposters. St. Martin's Press.
ISBN9780312238667.
^Attwood, Philip (2002). Italian medals c. 1530–1600 in British public collections. British Museum Press.
ISBN9780714108612.