Authority on Ancient Greek and Jewish Coins Receives ANS Award

Friday, March 9, 2001. Ya'akov Meshorer, professor of archaeology and numismatics at Hebrew University and Curator of Numismatics at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is the 2001 recipient of the Archer M. Huntington Medal Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to numismatic scholarship. The medal will be presented at the American Numismatic Society at 140 William Street, New York on Sunday March 25 at 3 p.m. Following the ceremony, Prof. Meshorer will deliver the Margaret Thompson Memorial Lecture on "Physical Representation of the Lord of Israel on Ancient Coins." A reception will follow.

Professor Meshorer is a leading authority on Ancient Greek and Jewish coins. He is the author of several standard works on Jewish coins and numismatics of the Near East. His contributions have opened many new areas of numismatic research including the coinage of Samaria in the fourth century BCE. His three-volume catalogue of the Abe Sofaer Collection of Coins from the Holy Land will be published by the ANS next year as part of the Ancient Coins in North American Collections series.

Prof. Meshorer's early fascination with numismatics is chronicled in an autobiographical piece in the Winter ANS Newsletter. As children, he and his brother played on land that had not been settled for the past 2,000 years "and almost any outdoor game would yield a find of ancient coins" primarily dating from 135 to 37 BCE with long Hebrew texts and archaic lettering. "The most exciting aspect...was realizing that our forefathers had used the same language and lived in the very same area where we spent our free hours."

The American Numismatic Society is the national institution advancing the study and public appreciation of coins, medals and related objects of all cultures as historical and artistic documents. Founded in 1858, the ANS houses the world's largest numismatic library and America's most comprehensive collections of numismatic objects representing over 2,500 years of material culture.

For further information contact Anne Reidy, Development Assistant.
Email Reidy@AmNumSoc.org or telephone 212 234-3130 x 231.