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Description: | The Department of Coins and Medals is home to one of the world's finest numismatic collections, comprising about one million objects. The collection spans the entire history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day, and related material such as coin weights, tokens and money-boxes. The Department also holds the national collection of paper money, ranging from one of the earliest 14th-century Chinese banknotes to the euro, as well as a magnificent selection of commemorative and art medals from the Italian Renaissance to the present.
The collection of British coins and tokens is the most extensive and complete in the world, comprising around 175,000 items. The collection aims to thoroughly document and represent the history of British coinage and currency from the earliest Anglo-Saxon coins of the 7th century AD to the present day. This collection is subdivided into the issues of England, Scotland and Ireland and is generally organised by reign. Tokens and other paranumismatica are organised by type: private tokens (17th, 18th and 19th centuries), coin weights, tickets, passes, jettons etc.
The collection of European and World coins in the British Museum consists of around 300,000 objects and is among the most wide-ranging and representative in the world, covering the rich and complex coinages of medieval and early modern Europe, the coinages of the European colonial empires and the modern coinages of the Americas, Africa and Oceania.
The Medal Collection comprises c. 70,000 objects, from Italian Renaissance medals of the 15th century to contemporary medals made by artists around the world today. In addition, the departmentÃ's 12,000 badge collection covers 19th and 20th centuries with a particular focus on political badges. These come from all round the world, with Britain and the USA particularly well represented. The majority are post-WWII with a concentration of material from the 1970s and 1980s.
The Greek Collection contains over 61,000 Greek coins and 28,000 Greek Imperial coins, covering Spain, Gaul, Italy, Greece and the Balkans, the Black Sea, Asia Minor, the Near and Middle East, Arabia and North Africa. It is subdivided into two chronological sections: Greek coinage from the beginnings of coinage in the 7th century BC to 31 BC, and Greek Imperial coinage (also known as Roman Provincial coinage) from 31 BC to mid 3rd century AD. The Greek section also includes related coin series such as Punic (the Carthaginian Empire), Judaean (Ancient Jewish), and Axumite (the ancient kingdom of Northern Ethiopia).
The Roman Collection consists of approximately 115,000 objects produced at Rome and across the Empire from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. These are mostly coins (gold, silver and base metal), but also includes medallions, ingots, tokens, coin weights and even a couple of coin dies. There are also about 6,000 ancient coin forgeries and 5,000 modern forgeries of Roman coins (some created as early as the Renaissance). The Byzantine section (AD 498-1453) consists of around 12,000 coins in gold, silver and copper-alloy. This includes the ÃBarbarianÃ' coinages of the successor kingdoms to the Western Roman Empire (such as the Goths, Vandals, Franks and Lombards) who remained in the orbit of Constantinople.
The pre-Islamic Iranian collection includes coins of the Partian and Sasanian dynasties, covering the period of c. 3rd century BC to the 7th century AD. The Islamic Collection begins with the earliest Arab-Sasanian and Arab Byzantine coinage in the 7th century AD, the Islamic reformed coins of the Umayyads, as well as later dynasties. Included in the collection are also Ottoman, Safavids and modern coins of the Middle East.
The Modern Money collection includes more than 175,000 coins, tokens and paper money dating from 1700 to the present day, covering Africa, the Americas, Europe and Australasia. Active contemporary collecting means that several thousand new objects are added to the collection each year, including not just coins and paper money, but also credit cards and other contemporary money-related objects. There are very significant holdings of British colonial coins and notes, including important early American coins and coins and notes transferred from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The department also has on permanent loan the collection of the Institute of Financial Services (formerly the Chartered Institute of Bankers).
- | Format: | artefacts | Subjects: | Numismatics Money Metrology Tokens Tickets Medals Bank notes Coins Trade tokens | Temporal: | Medieval 1066-1500 World War II 1939-45 18th century - late 1776-1799 Bronze age 2500BC- 700BC 20th century - late 1971-1999 19th century - early Victorian 1837-1850 20th century - mid 1931-1970 18th century - mid 1730-1775 18th century - early 1700-1730 17th century - early 1600-1629 16th century - late 1576-1599 19th century - late Victorian 1876-1899 19th century - mid Victorian 1851-1875 16th century - early 1500-1529 World War I 1914-18 20th century - early 1900-1930 1930s Saxon 400-1066 Romano-British 0-500 16th century - mid 1530-1575 19th century - early 1800-1836 Iron age 800BC-43AD 1920s 17th century - late 1676-1699 | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | FAX: | 020 7323 8616 | Telephone: | (+44) 020 7323 8000 (switchboard) (+44) 020 7323 8 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:5980 | Format: | artefacts | Go to resource |
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