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| Selected Articles from the Winter 2000 Newsletter (no. 87) |
Contributions in the first quarter of fiscal 2001, which greatly exceeded expectations, were lead by a signal contribution from President Donald Partrick of $1,300,000 which has provided immeasurable impetus to ANS development plans.
A year ago, the ANS Council identified fundraising and development as a priority. An investment was made to establish and work with a professional development staff to ensure the financial viability of the Society and its programs. This decision is being validated.
As an essential first step, the ANS Five-Year Plan was developed and approved by the Council and the ANS staff, establishing specific ANS goals and an overall strategy. This process made it possible for the Council and staff to think strategically about the future of the ANS rather than merely react to it. It has also helped to clarify the fundraising case. The plan will be reviewed annually and altered as necessary so it can have an ongoing impact on internal management as well as external support. It was published and sent to the membership as a statement of intent.
During the last fiscal quarter of 2000, several auspicious gifts were received that signaled that the ANS was entering a period of consolidated progress.
Arthur Houghton, ANS President from 1991-1999, contributed $31,430 in September, at the end of fiscal 2000: $20,000 to support the new building, 8,000 for the Annual Giving campaign, $2,000 for membership in the Gold Circle and $1,430 for the Islamic Curatorial Chair.
George W. Tillson, a Life Associates Member, became a Sponsor when he contributed more than $10,000 and made a successful request for a Mobil Foundation, Inc. matching grant.
During the first quarter of this fiscal year, (October - December 2000) the ANS received gifts totaling over $1,760,600.
Contributions in this first quarter of 2001, following the election of the ANS Council, have been very generous. “The ANS is greatly encouraged by continued and growing support - and grateful,” said Dr. Ute Wartenberg, Executive Director. “It validates our efforts to maintain programming, fulfill our Five-Year Plan, create a new home and establish endowed chairs.”
Gifts that were made to the ANS this quarter varied in kind from cash and securities contributed to ANS funds to coins for future auction which will contribute to funds, coins for the collection, two rare treasury bills - and an Internet domain name! Each of these contributions will help to support the work of the Society and/or help enrich its collections.
Contributions to ANS FundsPresident Donald Partrick has made an extraordinary contribution of $1,300,000. The gift has been designated to support specific ANS programs and initiatives: $1,000,000 for the new building, $100,000 for the U.S. Curatorial Chair, $5,000 to support the Coins of the Americas Conference (see page 5), $5,000 for the Groves Forum 3, $10,000 for special events, and $175,000 for general ANS programs and initiatives.
Chet Krause, contributed $239,000 toward his 3-year pledge toward the ANS building at William Street (article, ANS Newsletter, Summer 2000). The early receipt of these funds was both unexpected and greatly appreciated.
Dr. James H. Schwartz, Council member, contributed over $96,600 to establish an ANS Personnel Endowment, a restricted endowment created to fund general salary expenses of the ANS not funded by any other restricted or departmental support fund.
Kenneth Edlow, Treasurer and Chairman of the ANS Finance Committee, contributed $17,000: $7,000 for annual giving, $5,000 through a grant from the New York Community Trust for general operating support and $5,000 for the Mid-Year Appeal.
Clifford Mishler, ANS Council member, contributed $20,000 which included $5,000 to the Annual Campaign which he chaired, $5,000 to the Islamic Curatorial Fund, and $10,000 for the 2001 sponsorship of the Krause-Mishler Forum for World Coins which will be held at the ANS in May.
Prof. Miriam Balmuth of Tufts University contributed $10,000 to the Mid-Year Appeal.
John Adams, ANS Council member, contributed $5,000 to annual giving.
Richard Eidswick and Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss became Platinum Circle Members with a contribution of $5,000 each.
Jonathan Kagan has contributed 37 coins (33 Greek, four Roman) to be sold by the Society to benefit the new building. The contribution, which has an estimated value of over $100,000, is the second payment toward a 3-year pledge of $300,000. The tax credit will be the estimated appraised value of the coins at the time they were given to the ANS. For tax reasons the ANS must hold the coins for two years. It is hoped that other ANS supporters will contribute coins for this sale. Further information will be published in the next ANS Newsletter.
Over 120 additional contributors are listed on page 15. These contributors gave over $53,000, which brings the total of Annual Giving in the first fiscal quarter of 2001 to over $290,000. Gifts to Annual Giving include Circle Memberships, contributions to the Mid-Year Appeal, as well as contributions to the Annual Appeal, which was chaired by Cliff Mishler. These funds will be used to underwrite expenses incurred in general operations.
These gifts are essential to the vitality of the ANS and they are greatly appreciated.
Contributions to ANS CollectionsAnthony Terranova, a dealer in Colonial and American coins whose expertise is often sought by ANS staff members, made a unique gift of seven U.S. gold coins which he purchased for over $15,500 at the Christie’s S.S. Central America auction in December. Two of the coins were fused together by fire. Almost 400 people perished when the ship sank off the coast of North Carolina, September 12, 1857, causing a stock market panic. The ship with its cargo of more than $2 million in gold, including coins minted at the San Francisco Mint, was discovered in the 1980s. The ANS hopes to exhibit these coins and tell their story in a special case in the Federal Reserve Exhibit.
Paul Wilson of Bethesda, Maryland, presented the ANS with two rare U.S. Treasury notes, series of 1890: the serial numbers of the five-dollar bill (see illustration) and the one-dollar note are A1Star and A55Star, respectively. The notes, valued by Martin Gengerke at R.M. Smythe at $30,000, appear to have never been in circulation. In a note to Michael Bates, who traveled to DC to receive the notes, Mr. Wilson stated that the notes were given in trade during the Great Depression to his father, who owned a small jewelry shop, by an elderly gentleman. “Both ... knew that both bills were worth more [than face value]. After some spirited bidding back and forth...the elderly man had a ladies watch of his choice and my father was the owner of the two bills.” The Wilsons, who are not collectors, decided to donate the bills to the American Numismatic Society.
Dr. Peter Weiss has contributed 41 Greek coins from Aegina. The coins, part of a collection Dr. Weiss built of coins with different countermarks, have a sea turtle on the obverse. They illustrate the breadth and length of the circulation of these particular coins. which date from the mid 6th century to the mid 5th century BCE. He also contributed two Greek coins from Lycia from the 5th century BCE. Greek countermarks are one of the least understood phenomena of ancient numismatics. These contributions have broadened the resources of the ANS and will provide an interesting subject for research during the ANS Summer Seminar.
Commenting on these generous gifts to the ANS, Ute Wartenberg said “these contributions enhance the ANS collections enormously. The ANS needs exhibition materials that can tell fascinating stories such as the drama of the S.S. Central America or the journey of an A1Star U.S. Treasury note from a jewelry store to our museum. In addition, a wide variety of contributions are necessary to help us fulfill our essential role as a research institution.” Contributions to the ANS LibraryContributions to the Library over the first quarter of fiscal year 2001 are listed in this edition of the newsletter (pages 8 and 9).
Catherine Bullowa-Moore has donated funds to the library to maintain the David M. Bullowa Memorial Collection.
A Contribution of a Different KindGreg McLemore, CEO of WebMagic, an ANS member from California, made an unusual contribution: the domain name “Coin.Net.” This unexpected and uniquely appropriate gift from the world of DotCom was valued at $75,000 by domain name brokers specializing in intellectual property. It will eventually provide a more accessible presence for the ANS on the World Wide Web. WebMagic, an innovator in Internet technologies, has a portfolio of Web sites.
Ya’akov Meshorer Receives Archer M. Huntington Medal AwardYa’akov Meshorer, professor of archaeology and numismatics at Hebrew University and Curator of Numismatics at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, will be the 2001 recipient of the Archer M. Huntington Medal Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to numismatic scholarship. After the award cermony, Professor Meshorer will present the Margaret Thompson Memorial Lecture on the topic “Physical Representations of the Lord of Israel on Ancient Coins.” ANS members and the public are invited. The ceremony and the lecture will be held at the Society’s new building at 140 William Street on Sunday, March 25 at 3:00 p.m.
Professor Meshorer is a leading authority on Ancient Greek and Jewish coins. He is the author of several standard works on Jewish coins and Near Eastern numismatics. His contributions opened up many new areas of numismatic research, including the coinage of Samaria in the fourth century BCE. A three-volume publication of the Abe Sofaer Collection of Coins from the Holy Land will be published by the ANS next year as part of the ACNAC series.
Mr. Meshorer’s early fascination with numismatics is chronicled in the extraordinary piece re-printed here. Written approximately 20 years ago, it provides an insightful account of one man’s eventful introduction to the lure of numismatics set against a critical time in the history of Israel.
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I was born and spent my childhood in one of the northern quarters of Jerusalem. Our home was situated among scattered houses on the bare hillsides of Judaea which had not been settled for the last two thousand years. My playground was unexplored archaeological soil, and I remember that almost any outdoor game would yield a find of ancient coins. The area was also full of rock-cut caves in which we children would find fragments of stone ossuaries and pottery. We know today that these were part of a Second Temple Period Jewish cemetery, the so-called Tombs of the Sanhedrin. As a curious child, each Sabbath I would take the week’s pickings to Dr. Mordekhai Narkis at the Bezalel Museum. That well-known writer of a book on Jewish coins would identify the finds for me and my twin brother, who was my constant partner in exploration. Almost all of the coins were of the Hasmonean Dynasty, from John Hyrcanus I (135-104 BCE) to Mattathias Antigonas (40-37 BCE), and with their long Hebrew texts and archaic lettering they truly fired our childish imagination. To the best of my recollection, the most exciting aspect was trying to decipher the ancient script on these coins and realizing that our forefathers had used the same language and lived in the very same area where we spent our free hours. Even as very young children I think we sensed that the Jewish people had come full circle and were again settling and tilling their ancient homeland. My family celebrated my Bar Mitzvah during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. We had no refreshments to offer to the few guests who braved the sniping and shelling to attend our modest celebration. The only thing I could offer my guests was a small exhibition of the coins I had found, together with some short explanatory notes. One of the questions that bothered me was why these coins were always scattered on the surface of the ground. Had someone deliberately placed them there some 2000 ago specifically for my benefit? I also often wondered why, despite the fact that I found hundreds of small bronze coins, not a single gold or silver coin turned up. Now, as a professional archaeologist, I can answer my childhood questions. We know that during medieval times all these tombs were robbed, and their contents sifted by the thieves for valuable metal objects - gold and silver coins and jewelry - and that the small bronze coins were discarded and left at the entrance to the tombs. Later on, when I was more grown up, I found more hunting grounds in the Jerusalem area and in other parts of the Holy Land. One of the most striking developments in the 1950s was the rapid growth of settlement, building and turning of land in Jerusalem. The new campus of the Hebrew University was erected to replace the Mount Scopus campus to which Israel was denied access; hospitals and government offices grew up. All this land development proved detrimental to my own private dreams in that my archaeological territory was being covered with an impenetrable layer of asphalt, road, paving stones and buildings. Such a place, one of my prime sources of coins, was Givat Ram, where a new international hotel now stands. The site yielded coins from the Persian period in the 5th century BCE down to Crusader times of the 12th century BCE. The most remarkable of the six hundred pieces I found in this area was one of the oldest coins ever discovered in Israel-an archaic silver tetradrachm struck in Athens in the 6th century BCE. We recall that between 520-516 BCE the Second Temple was in the process of construction, and this coin must have been handled in Jerusalem by people who actually witnessed the building activities. Other noteworthy coins from the same site were coins overstruck with countermarks of the Tenth Roman Legion Fretensis, as this was their campsite during the second half of the first century BCE. The main Roman road to Jerusalem from the coastal plain passed through this site which must have been an important garrison. It certainly provided me with coins bearing a wonderful patina which were always a source of pleasure. Certain examples among these coins were the best preserved known to date from this period. I clearly remember quarreling with my mother who insisted I spend less time on this coin nonsense-playing around with tiny pieces of bronze-and apply myself to schoolwork and my violin. Every time she caught me fiddling with these little bits of metal and arranging them in the trays I had made myself in my father’s workshop, I had to explain I wasn’t really wasting my time. The running argument with my mother came to an abrupt end when she herself found a coin-an attractive coin of the Jewish War against the Romans-just a few meters in front of the steps leading to our house. This of course thrilled her tremendously and she never protested again. In the winter we would pick mushrooms from a nearby stand of trees. After such an excursion the mud had to be scraped off our boots, and once a coin fell off the sole of my shoe. Although this was not an important coin, just a late Roman coin of Constantine I, the curious circumstances made it a piece to remember. From time to time I would play a special game with my twin brother: we would compete in a coin hunt not far from the Tombs of the Sanhedrin. Two hours were allotted for the competition. There was never any question of whether or not coins would be found-the only question was how many. Coins less than six hundred years old did not count. As a youth I loved drawing, particularly the coins I found myself, and I still insist that sketching a coin is the best way to study it, for in drawing it one must first inspect and grasp all its elements before reproducing it on paper. Today at the Hebrew University I still tell my pupils that this is the best method of learning and remembering the material. During my high school days, when we all had much more opportunity of seeing other parts of the country, I could add coins of a different nature to my collection. It was at this time that I first realized that certain coins circulated only in limited areas while other types were found throughout the country. For example, in Galilee I found Phoenician coins that I had never encountered in Jerusalem, or, from the southern sea coast came Ptolemaic coins that never turned up in the capital. These foreign coins could not help but arouse my thoughts regarding the various stages of history of the Holy Land, its relations with the neighboring countries and superpowers of ancient times and, for me, they gave an added dimension of importance of coins in the understanding of history. My compulsory army service in the mid 1950s enabled me to be ‘close to the ground’ for two and a half years-sleeping and eating on the ground, creeping over it, digging trenches, for the infantry belongs to the soil! This indeed was a fruitful period for finding coins. I even remember that while training in the rain with some twenty-five pounds of equipment on my back and carrying a machine-gun, I spotted a coin in the sands of Caesarea, green and tempting. I stopped to pick it up and then went on, with the result that I was confined to barracks. After completing of my army service I settled in Kibbutz Hazerim in the Negev where I used to take the kibbutz tractor on weekends and travel along the valleys looking for new coin-yielding areas. I was naturally drawn to a quest for more archaeological and historical information. After two years in the kibbutz I managed to build an archaeological museum in which I exhibited finds from the Northern Negev as well as my own numismatic collection, and in this connection I must tell of my first unfortunate experience. The museum was broken into and a large part of my collection was stolen. For me, the coins were more than just coins, as I had found them all myself and knew their exact provenance. They were irreplaceable and I was heartbroken. Today, however, after so many years as a chief curator of archaeology and curator of numismatics at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, I no longer really care whether I own a coin collection or not. Any coin, regardless of its owner, is of interest and has its own message and story for me, both now and in my earliest childhood. Ya’akov Meshorer |
The sixth annual ANS forum on the Arab-Byzantine coinage of Bilad al-Sham (Syria) in the seventh and eighth centuries took place at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, November 18. Fifteen participants, including nine speakers, were present in the beautiful main building of the estate in Georgetown.
The Dumbarton Oaks venue this year was arranged by Dr. Cecile Morrisson, Resident Numismatist at DO, an institution of Harvard University. The meeting was organized by Charles Karukstis, who has recently been named North American Secretary of the meeting’s co-sponsor, the Oriental Numismatic Society, succeeding the late William B. Warden.
After opening remarks by the ANS Curator of Islamic Coins, Michael Bates, there were nine presentations. Each was followed by a lively question-and-answer session. Presentations included:
Cecile Morrisson (Paris) and E. A. Arslan (Milan): “A hoard of Byzantine solidi from Jordan in the Umayyad period”; Clive Foss (Boston): “The Coinage of Mu’awiya”; Bruno Callegher (Padua): “Le monete arabo-bizantine e protoarabe dagli scavi nella città di Cafarnao”; “Le monete arabobizantine di provenienza siriana nella Collezione Ravazzano”; Henri Pottier (Brussels): “More About Heavy Folles Issued in Syria during the War between Byzantium and the Persians”; Charlie Karukstis (Claremont, CA): “An Eighth-Century Hoard from Bethlehem? Preliminary Analysis”; Robert W. Hoge (Colorado Springs): “Arab-Byzantine Coinage in the Collection of the Museum of the American Numismatic Association”; Peter Lampinen (Bausman, PA): “Minting methods of copper and bronze coins: Byzantine, Transitional and Umayyad”; Emmett McDonald (West Babylon, NY) informally presented some relevant coins from his own collection.
Forum summaries will be on the ANS Web site under Arab-Byzantine Forum VI.
The meeting was somewhat multilingual but informal translation and collegial goodwill enabled all participants to follow the discussion.
Next year’s Arab-Byzantine Forum VII will also be held at Dumbarton Oaks on Saturday, November 17 2001. Presentations of all kinds, formal, informal, or entirely casual, are welcome. The meeting is open to anyone who is interested in the subject; it is not necessary to make a presentation. Those who expect to attend are asked to contact Karukstis or Bates as soon as possible, but there is no pre-registration for the meeting.
ANS Reports Strong Progress at Annual Meeting, Elects Council“Difficult times required that we reassess our strengths and weaknesses,” President Donald Partrick stated at the Annual Meeting on October 21. “We have emerged stronger and wiser due to a team effort between the ANS staff, Council and supportive members.”
The results of these efforts were the subject of positive reports: progress on the building; contributions and deficit reduction; programs, exhibitions and publications.
Partrick announced that the estimated cost of initial renovation of three floors of the new building, general infrastructure and moving expenses is estimated at $2.85 million, which has been raised.
Kenneth Edlow, Chairman of the Finance Committee, stated that preliminary figures indicate that expenditures, excluding severance pay and extraordinary items, were lower than anticipated in the budget of last year. “Operating efficiencies employed by the staff of the ANS helped to lower the deficit by more than one-third.” Audited financial statements are available on the ANS Web site at www.AmNumSoc.org.
ANS Director Dr. Ute Wartenberg reported continued support for the Society including over 300 individual donations equaling c. $1.75 million which have allowed the ANS to strengthen programs and advance new programs. She announced that the Graduate Student Seminar would be reinstated for the summer of 2001(see page 11).
In addition, a joint 5-year exhibition with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an ANS neighbor in the Financial District, is in preparation. The exhibition, a comprehensive display of coins and currency from the collections, will open in the Fall. She announced new publications that were ahead of schedule (see publications, page 7) and remarked that publishing remains “one of out most important activities.”
Thirteen ANS Councilors were confirmed. Ninety out of 185 Fellows eligible voted in favor of the slate; 9 Fellows voted against the slate. The Society received several other proxies by fax or email, which were not admitted. The newly elected Council Members are John W. Adams, Kenneth L. Edlow, Peter Gaspar, Cora Lee C. Gillilland, Arthur Houghton, Robert A. Kandel, Eric Newman, Donald G. Partrick, James H. Schwartz, David B. Simpson, Peter K. Tompa, John Whitney Walter and George U. Wyper.
Council member bios are available on the ANS Web site.
In closing Dr Wartenberg commented on the importance of an active Council. “We hope to develop ways to increase the involvement of all who enjoy numismatics and who care about the future of this institution... If so, we shall succeed.”
Leo Mildenberg RememberedCarmen Arnold-Biucchi, first Margaret Thompson Curator of Greek Coins, sent us the following obituary of Huntington Medallist Leo Mildenberg.
On January 14, 2001, the numismatic world lost a compelling protagonist, Leo Mildenberg. Few dealers had a greater impact on the taste of collectors, few scholars stirred so much interdisciplinary discussion and left such definitive works as his The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War (1984) and few human beings touched so many by their kindness and cheerfulness.
Born on Valentine’s Day 1913 in Kassel, Leo spent his school years in Bad Mergentheim and Schwäbisch Hall. He began his studies of ancient history and Semitic languages at the University of Frankfurt, but was driven out by the Nazis in 1933. He went first to Leipzig and then to Tartu in Estonia where he received his degree and subsequently taught Semitic languages. In 1941 the Russians arrived and deported him to Kazakhstan. It was there in the camp of Karaganda that he met Elsie Brunner who became his first wife. Thanks to the efforts of her family, Leo and Elsie were released and arrived in Zurich in 1947.
At this point, Leo’s life took an extraordinary turn. He met Dietrich Schwarz, director of the Landesmuseum and an eminent professor and numismatist who introduced him to Jacob Hirsch, the German-American grand seigneur of the antiquities market and J.H Pfeiffer, director of Bank Leu. The former awoke Leo’s passion for beautiful coins and later made him his heir, the latter decided to create a numismatic department and put Leo in charge. From then on, Leo’s success is well known: Silvia Hurter joined him in the fifties and Bank Leu became the leading auction house for ancient coins. Their catalogues, following Hirsch’s high standards, became reference works for collectors and scholars. His writings were not limited to Jewish coins. He published numerous articles on Sicilian, Punic and Lycian coins. In the last years, he concentrated on coinage in the Persian empire and on Philisto-Arabian coins. He was the sole editor of the Swiss Numismatic Society 1966 to 1979 and was proud that his pupil Silvia Hurter succeeded him.
Leo Mildenberg had a long-standing relation with the ANS: he was elected associate member in 1950, corresponding member in 1979 and he received its highest honor, the Huntington Medal, in 1986. Leo helped editor and director Leslie Elam produce several important ANS publications. Through Bank Leu’s Jubilee Fund and the IAPN, Leo secured funds for the Survey of Numismatic Research 1966-1971 (1973), and for W.E. Metcalf’s The Cistophori of Hadrian (1984). Thanks to Leo the ANS was chosen to print the splendid Arthur S. Dewing Collection. Leo had strong ties with the Greek Department, first with Margaret Thompson and later with Nancy M. Waggoner and myself. With Silvia Hurter, he was instrumental in securing the major contribution to endow the Margaret Thompson Chair. He was saddened by recent developments.
We have lost a great numismatist and a dear friend. He is survived by his second wife Ilse Seehavussen and a son and stepdaugther.
Graduate Summer Seminar 2001Professor Kenneth Harl, Tulane University, will be the 2001 visiting lecturer of the ANS Graduate Seminar.
The ANS had announced in December that it will hold the Forty-eighth Graduate Seminar in Numismatics at the Museum of the American Numismatic Society from June 18 through July 27, 2001.
Kenneth Harl, a Fellow of the ANS and a well-known ancient historian, has written extensively about Roman provincial coins and in particular Asia Minor. His most recent book is Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700.
The Graduate Seminar, instituted in 1952, is an outstanding example of museum educational programs which familiarize students with methodology and scholarship. It provides an understanding of the contributions made by numismatics to other fields of study. Students also have the opportunity to work with a world-class museum collection and library.
The intensive program of study includes lectures and seminars conducted by specialists in various fields, preparation and oral delivery of a research paper on a topic of the student’s choice, and work with the ANS collection related to that topic. Curatorial staff and other experts from this country and abroad will participate in the seminar.
Applications are accepted from students of demonstrated competence who will have completed at least one year of graduate work in history, classical studies, economic history, or other related fields. Applications are also encouraged from junior faculty members with an advanced decree in one of these fields. The Society will be accepting six seminar students. Stipends of $2,500 are available to qualified applicants who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Canada. The Society will also provide round-trip travel fare from each student’s home institution.
Applications are accepted from outstanding students from international institutions who have completed the equivalent of one year’s graduate work and can demonstrate fluency in English. No financial aid is offered.
Information and application forms may be obtained from the ANS, Graduate Seminar, Broadway at 155th Street, New York, NY 10032 or via email from seminar@amnumsoc.org. All applications and evaluations have to reach the Society by March 1, 2001.