John M. Kleeberg will assume the title of Curator of Modern Coins at the ANS as of October 1, 1996. Kleeberg has been in charge of modern coins and currency since February 1990.

Kleeberg was educated at Yale University and received his D.Phil in Modern History from Oxford in 1990. Since joining the Society he has edited the Proceedings volumes of three COAC conferences: America's Silver Dollars, published in 1995; Canada's Money, (1994); and Money of Pre-Federal America (1992). Each of these volumes, as well as The Token: America's Other Money resulting from COAC 1994, has featured a major contribution by him, and he has also published in the Actes of the 1991 Brussels International Numismatic Congress, The Journal of Transport History, and The Encyclopedia of New York City. His reviews have appeared in the American Journal of Numismatics, in which he has an article forthcoming, and his biographies of prominent Americans involved with numismatics will appear in the new American National Biography. Perhaps his best-known contribution, however, is "Clio's Handmaiden: The Historian and the Coin Cabinet," which appeared in Perspectives: The American Historical Association Newsletter in January 1994 and was reprinted in the ANSNewsletter.

Kleeberg has organized exhibits in connection with each of the COAC conferences since 1991, and at the New York International Numismatic Conventions. He currently serves as President of the New York Numismatic Club.

Dr. and Mrs. Stephen K. Scher of Clifton, NJ, have generously established The Stephen K. Scher Lecture at the ANS, to be presented annually in conjunction with the Saltus Award Meeting. This endowed lectureship will enable the Society to invite a guest speaker of prominence to deliver The Stephen K. Scher Lecture on a topic in keeping with the theme of the meeting which each February honors a sculptor/medalist, either American or foreign, for "outstanding achievement in the art of the medal."

Annually, the ANS Standing Committee on the Saltus Medal Award forwards a nomination to the Society's Council for consideration at its October meeting. In the event that the ANS Council votes to award the Saltus Medal, Dr. Alan M. Stahl, ANS Curator of Medals and Secretary of the Saltus Committee, will coordinate the program for the "Saltus Award Meeting including The Stephen K. Scher Lecture. " In the event that no recipient of the award is elected, the gift agreement provides for "The Stephen K. Scher Lecture Meeting" to be held on the designated date.

Dr. Scher, CEO of Scher Chemicals and past Chairman of the Department of Art History at Brown University, is a specialist in Renaissance medals and frequently lectures on this subject at the Society's Graduate Seminar. In July, he was nominated as a member of the Society's Council, the election to take place at the Annual Meeting of the ANS this October.

Visitors to the Olympic Games in Atlanta this summer had the opportunity to enjoy an extraordinary cultural experience. Through August 18, the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University exhibited "Nike, Competition and Victory at the Ancient Greek Festival Games."

This exhibition, displaying a variety of objects from the Carlos Collection and from several private and public collections, including the ANS, traced the origin and development of the ancient games, which could include athletic, musical and dramatic contests, with athletic competitions coming to dominate the festivals. Nike, the image of Victory, also plays an important role in the early history of the games as depicted on vases and coins.

For the exhibition, the ANS lent twelve of its finest Greek and Roman coins depicting scenes associated with the ancient games, including our late fifth century Syracusan decadrachm with the reverse image of Nike crowning the charioteer driving a quadriga with all four horses in full gallop.

An important aspect of the exhibit is a scholarly discussion of the athletic events and the honors that accrue to the victors, allowing the visitor to draw parallels between the ancient and modern games. Just as victory at a Panhellenic festival, such as that held every four years at Olympia, brought high honor to the individual as well as to his city, today we cheer on our athletes with a great sense of national pride.

The 1996 Graduate Seminar (left to right): Paul Legutko, Tricia Halpin; James F. D. Frakes, Chandreyi Basu, Alexis Q. Castor, Visiting Scholar Andrea Saccocci; Harry Bone, Isabelle Pafford, Robert Papp, Julian R. Baker, Eric J. Hanne and Marilyn Higbee.

The forty-fourth ANS Graduate Seminar in Numismatics concluded its nine-week program on August 9, following a week of presentations by the students on their individual research projects conducted over the summer. Eleven students representing eight universities participated.

This year's Visiting Scholar was Dr. Andrea Saccocci of the Dipartimento di Storia e Tutela dei Beni Culturali, Universita degli Studi di Udine. Dr. Saccocci, who has published widely on late medieval coins and numismatics, delivered three lectures, assisted the students in understanding the methodology of numismatic research, and even found the time to address the New York Numismatic Club. During the final weeks, he was joined in New York by his wife Rosa and four year old daughter Chiara, who was "hostess" at an Amsterdam Cafe party for students and curators.

Also assisting the curatorial and library staff in the conduct of the program were several outside speakers, whose presentations emphasized various approaches to the study of the numismatic evidence.

Included were: Ben Lee Damsky (Belmont, CA); Sarah E. Cox (New York); Fred S. Kleiner (Boston); Stephen K. Scher (Clifton, NJ); and Eric P. Newman (St. Louis).

The ANS Graduate Seminar program is supported by the Eric P. Newman Education Fund, established by gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Eric P. Newman of St. Louis.

This year's students, with their academic affiliations and a synopsis of their seminar research topics, were as follows:

Julian R. Baker (University of Birmingham), "Three hoards of deniers tournois from Frankish Greece and their contribution to the study of the coinage of southern Greece and the Peloponnese in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. "

The three hoards range in size from 180 to 220 pieces, and all contain coins of the Principality of Achaia, the Duchy of Athens and an ill-defined Despotate of Romania in Epics. These states were formed in the wake of the conquest of Constantinople and great parts of the Byzantine empire at the hands of the participants in the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Their coinage was produced from the mid-thirteenth century in the form of deniers tournois and obols and designed to supplement similar coinage from the West as well as Byzantine-style billon and copper coins. Only recently have some diagnostic features of these coins - punches and style of lettering, as well as mint marks - been recognized and classified, and it is on the basis of these that questions such as mint distribution, recoinages within series, mint output and imitative coinages will be resolved.

Chandreyi Basu (University of Pennsylvania), "Re-examining the coinage of Taxila (2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.): a study of regional mint organization. "

This study attempts to reconstruct the mint organization of Taxila, the principal region east of the river Indus, from the Indo-Greek period until its occupation by the Kushan rulers. It undertakes a preliminary identification of the major coin types struck at Sirkap, the chief urban settlement in Taxila during this period. Obverse and reverse types are analyzed according to their style and iconography; further groupings are made by examining the nature of inscriptions, control marks, fabric, layout of the types, weights and denominations of the coins. As far as possible a chronological arrangement of the series for the region is presented. This reconstruction in time and space also relies on the information provided by archaeological find spots, hoards, and relevant epigraphic records.

Harry J. Bone (Princeton University), "The post-reform coinage of Umayyad Damascus. "

The primary numismatic aim of the study is to determine a relative and absolute chronology of the various series of copper coinage issued from the mint of Damascus as a result of the monetary reforms of 'Abd-al Malik toward the end of the first century H./seventh century A. D. A detailed breakdown of the Damascene issues is examined in relation to the main issues of other Syrian mints in order to see how coordinated monetary policy was in Syria as a whole during the Umayyad period. The long-term historical aim is to shed light on the nature of Umayyad administration in Syria, especially that of the metropolitan province of Damascus itself, to which end some provisional, rather general conclusions are offered.

Alexis O. Castor (Bryn Mawr College), "Eustephanos, The Well-Crowned Goddess on Greek Coins."

In the absence of inscriptions, symbols and attributes are critical to identifying figures represented on Greek coin types. A group of attributes, crowns and wreaths worn by females on coins dating from the fifth to the second century B.C., is the subject of this study. There are four types of headdress: the poles, a tall, flat crown; the mural crown, representing the walls of a city; the stephane, a metal diadem often worn by the Hellenistic queens; and wreaths made of leaves or grain. Goddesses, nymphs, city personifications and queens all wear these crowns, and the goal is to identify which crown types are appropriate for these women. By focusing on a single attribute shown in a variety of coin types, it will be possible to study the influences and connections in art and religion within the Mediterranean world.

James F. D. Frakes (Columbia University), "Chronology and the Gallic silver of the Rhone Valley. "

The series of Celtic silver commonly known as the "horseman coins of the Rhone Valley" has continued to pose serious problems for historians and numismatists. From their appearance as objects of study in 1837, to the recent publication of the British Museum's Catalogue of Celtic Coins ( 1990), secure answers to questions of provenance, date, sequence, location of issue, political circumstance and economic or social purpose have persistently remained beyond the reach of scholars. The focus of this presentation is on the historiography of the coinage, weighing scholarly proposals both fanciful and factual and isolating remaining problems and possible solutions. Of central importance will be the relationship between Celtic Gaul and the expanding Roman state, the nature of the inscriptional evidence on the coins themselves, and the explanation of preliminary findings in a die study that must necessarily extend beyond the summer.

Patricia A. Halpin (Boston College), "Pennies from Heaven: The role of money and Anglo-Saxon pilgrimage."

This paper examines how numismatics and related economic sources may contribute to our understanding of Anglo-Saxon pilgrimage both on the Continent and within England. Archaeology, wills, charters, ecclesiastical letters, inventory lists, chronicles, saints' lives and laws have together presented a tradition for the pilgrimage experience of Anglo-Saxons. Numismatic evidence, however - coin finds, textual references to offerings, "Peter's pence," and pilgrimage expenses - have hitherto been underutilized by historians. Integrating such evidence into our body of knowledge will clarify our understanding of this devotional activity during the early medieval period; that is, the financial demands for such travel, the offering practices of pilgrims at shrines (particularly at Rome, the threshold of the Apostles) and perhaps even the routes taken by pilgrims as reflected by coin trends.

Eric J. Hanne (University of Michigan), "'The Powers that Be': Twelfth-century gold coinage from the central Islamic lands."

A study of the titulary evidence on the gold diners from the central Islamic lands during the twelfth century (1092-1180), this project deals with the tumultuous period following the assassination of Sultan Malikshah in 1092. Following this event, the Great Saljuqs, who had formed a vast empire dominating the Abbasid Caliphate, began to fragment, eventually forming smaller sultanates in Iraq and Kirman. By the end of the period the Abbasids, among others, were able to gain ascendancy over the weakened Saljuqs. This study uses numismatic evidence from three major mints (Baghdad, Nisapur, Isfahan) as well as from many "provincial" mints in an attempt to shed light on the political and historical developments of the period.

Marilyn Higbee (Columbia University), "Annulet and decoration patterns in the silver coinage of the independent Emirate of Umayyad Spain."

This paper looks at the silver dirhams produced by the independent emirate of Umayyad Spain during the years 138-300 H./750-912 C.E., focusing on the changing annulet and decoration patterns. Like most Umayyad dirhams, these coins are quite uniform in terms of inscriptions, epigraphy, stated mint, weight, fabric, and general style - the most regular variations being found only in the annulet and decoration patterns. Both Vives and Miles noted such patterns as a possible basis for definition of issues, identification of single or multiple mints, or illumination of mint organization and practices, but neither was able to undertake a full study. Examination of the collections of the ANS and the Museo Arqueologico Nacional of Madrid, as well as a hoard provided for study by Stephen Album, encourages the belief that these changing annulet and decoration patterns are indeed systematic and therefore meaningful - not purely ornamental, as Miles argued.

Paul A. Legutko (University of Michigan), "The revolt of Macrianus and Quietus and its effect on Alexandrian coinage, A.D. 260-63."

This paper reconstructs the history of coinage in Roman Egypt during and immediately following the revolt of Macrianus and Quietus against the emperor Gallienus in A.D. 260. This revolt is poorly understood, and the evidence is often misleading and contradictory. From the period 260-63 in Egypt, eight series of coins can be distinguished on the basis of metrology, portrait style, reverse type and legend. Through die links and hoard evidence, these issues can be interconnected and reconciled to the papyrological and literary evidence from the period in order to clarify the events during and after this rebellion.

Isabelle A. Pafford (San Francisco State University), "Megara: the Hellenistic coinage, a preliminary study."

The Greek city-state of Megara, although an important participant in the historical events of the archaic and classical periods, did not begin issuing coins until the early Hellenistic era. Apart from a small silver series, Megara's coinage was restricted to bronze denominations which have not received much scholarly attention. The present study attempts, through metrological analysis and die comparison, to arrange Megara's coinage in a systematic order, and compares Megara's denominational system with the coinages of other cities in the region such as Athens, Corinth, and Sicyon.

Robert G. Papp (Columbia University), "The Road to Chervonets: The representation of national identity in Russian money, 1896-1924."

Visual aspects of Russian coins and paper money are examined from the coronation of Nicholas II to the advent of a stable currency in early Soviet Russia. The paper addresses how the state used money as a means to express its vision of national identity, and the varying extent to which this played a significant role in the design of money in the period at hand. Elements of continuity as well as innovation are emphasized as Russia underwent the difficult transition from empire to the early Soviet state.