Thracian Numismatics and Hoard Objects
        The Third Classical Numismatic Conference, sponsored jointly by the ANS, the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology and The Classics Department of the University of California, Berkeley and the San Francisco Ancient Numismatic Society, will be held on Sunday, September 13, 1998, at Alumni House of the University of California, Berkeley. This conference was inspired by the current exhibit of Thracian Gold at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor which can be seen every day except Monday.
The program is as follows:

8:30 Registration
8:45 Welcome:        Isabelle Pafford, President, SFANS

Morning Session, chaired by Gerry Borrmann

Elena Stolyarik, The American Numismatic Society
"Greeks and Barbarians on the Northwest Black Sea Littoral"
        The Greek, Getae-Thracian and Scythian contributions to the culture of Northwestern Pontic littoral can be revealed by the numismatic and archaeological evidence. The cultural syncretism and economic prosperity gave rise to a diverse coinage. The monetary circulation of this area comprised the Cyzicenes and, later, the gold Lysimachi; the issues of the municipal authorities of Olbia, Tyra, the Bosporan kingdom, and the issues of the Scythian and Thracian dynasts.

Dr. Lawrence A. Adams, Studio City, CA
"The Gold Coinage of the Early Kingdom of the Bosporus"
        The Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus reached from the Crimea to the western Black Sea littoral. Much of our knowledge of its dynasts has been pieced together by study of the coinage. Of interest is to see the later interaction with Rome during its client-state period when ruled by a succession of Thracian princes.

Cathy Lorber, Woodland Hills, CA
"Thracian Plate as Wealth"
        Ancient plate was valued by weight in the same units and on the same weight standards as currency. Many objects in the "Wealth of the Thracians" exhibition can be related to weight standards employed for Macedonian and Thracian coinage.

Carmen Arnold-Biucchi, The American Numismatic Society
"Representations of the Zodiac in Thrace"
        At least 12 cities chose the zodiac as their coin type for some limited issues in the second and third centuries A.D. Though the bibliography on ancient astrology is extremely abundant, there is still no comprehensive study on this subject. This paper discusses such representations in Thrace and attempts to interpret them in their historical and cultural context.

Buffet Lunch

Afternoon Session, chaired by Robert Knapp

Ben Damsky, Belmont, CA
"Pausanias in Thrace"
        Using the Roman provincial coins of Thrace, we can reconstruct some of the important sights that our ancient travel guide would have noted had he visited and written about the province. We can also gain some insight into the attractions they were most proud of.

William E. Metcalf, The American Numismatic Society
"Coinage and Currency in Third-Century Thrace"
        Reka-Devnia, Bulgaria, was the site of the largest documented hoard of Roman denarii from the first half of the Roman Empire. As such, it offers the best view we have of the coins in circulation for any province outside of Italy. The evidence is supported by other finds.

Student Presentations – Introduction by Susanna Elm, Chair of The Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology

Martha Jenks, University of California, Berkeley
"The Coinage of Theodebert I of Metz (A.D. 533/4-547/8)"
        Theodebert's gold coinage, minted in his own name, represented a significant departure from the practice of earlier barbarian kings who imitated Byzantine designs. The paper examines this early experiment in royal coinage and analyses both the iconography of the coinage itself and the political implications of its production.

Isabelle Pafford, San Francisco State University
"Numismatic Evidence for the Cult of Apollo Agyieus"
        According to Pausanius, Apollo was worshiped at Megara in the primitive form of a conical stele, under the cult name Apollo Agyieus. This stele was depicted on Megara's Hellenistic coins, and on the coins of Megara's Thracian colony, Byzantium. This paper will examine the iconographic and numismatic reasons for using the stele as a coin device.

Concluding Remarks - William E. Metcalf and Robert Knapp

Reception

Conference Program Enclosed
        For convenience, a copy of the Conference Program is enclosed with this newsletter. Complete information and a registration form are also included. Because the sponsoring organizations underwrite the expenses, registration is only $20. This includes refreshments at breaks, a buffet lunch and a reception following the talks. Please fill out the Registration Form and mail it with your check to the American Numismatic Society by September 8.

Bates to Lecture at MM Bates to Lecture at Metropolitan Museum on Islamic Coin Titulature

        ANS Curator of Islamic Coins Michael L. Bates will be one of three lecturers in this year's Wilkinson Lecture Series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The theme of the series this year will be "Art and Writing."
        Bates's lecture will focus on the Abbasid coinage of the ninth century, when the canons of titulature, of coin design, and of the inscription of titles on coins and other objects, were being developed. At the beginning of the period, honorific titles were rarely and irregularly granted. By the time of the Buyids, honorary titles had become normal and their form was customary. Coins were a favored medium for the display of honorific titulature, but such titles were also used on official robes, on objets de luxe, on buildings, on flags, and on armor.
        The lectures will begin at 2:00 on Thursday, October 15, in the Uris Center Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. The public is invited; the lectures are free after museum admission. The series is sponsored jointly by the three Departments of Ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Islamic Art. The full program will include:
  1. Hans J. Nissen (Freie Universität, Berlin): The Emergence of Art and Writing in Early Babylonia
  2. Richard H. Wilkinson (University of Arizona): Word and Image: Hieroglyphic Writing and Art in Ancient Egypt
  3. Michael L. Bates: The Expression of Nobility: The Use of Titles on Objects and Coins from the Abbasid Caliphate

 Library Notes Library Notes

        In connection with the Library's card catalog retrospective conversion project, we have received from Gaylord Information Systems, Liverpool, New York, ten boxes of ANS library cards sent to them for conversion earlier this year. More than 8,000 converted records have also been received through electronic file transfer. These machine readable (MARC tagged) records are presently being proofed by the library staff. The data elements found on our library cards are being entered into the appropriate MARC fields and the directions provided to Gaylord by Ms. Tamara Fultz, Assistant Librarian, regarding field and subfield designations, are being followed to our general satisfaction. The library staff has been in regular communication with both Gaylord and W. L. Hill Consulting, Dallas, Texas, the firm which developed the software used for viewing and editing the converted records. Within the next few weeks we expect to receive from Gaylord another shipment of cards, after which we will send additional cards to them for conversion. As the project proceeds and as Gaylord becomes more familiar with our conversion requirements, we expect the project to accelerate somewhat.
        Among the publications generously donated by authors and publishers are Ralf Althoff, ed., Sammlung Köhler-Osbahr, Band V/1: Byzantinische Münzen und ihr Umfeld. Anastasius I. (491-518) bis Phocas (602-610) (Duisburg, 1998); Bernard Bouyon, Études de gravure monétaire de l'Italie grecque archaïque à l'Europe du 17e siècle (Wetteren, Belgium, 1998), donated by Dr. Georges Depeyrot; Hélène Cadell, and Georges Le Rider, Prix du blé et numéraire dans l'Égypte Lagide de 305 à 173 (Brussels, 1997); Marta Campo, La imatge del poder a la moneda (Barcelona, 1998); Jose Eduardo de Cara, Urquiza en la medalla (Buenos Aires, 1997); Enrico Cavada and Giovanni Gorini, Materiali per la storia urbana di Tridentum. II: Ritrovamenti monetali (Trento, 1995); Croatian National Bank, Numismatic coins and banknotes issued by the Croatian National Bank (Zagreb, 1998); Georges Depeyrot, Le numeraire merovingien: L'age de l'or. 2vols. (Wetteren, Belgium, 1998); Richard Doty, America's money: America's story (Iola, WI, 1998), donated by Krause Publications; Edhem Eldem, A 135-year-old treasure: Glimpses from the past in the Ottoman Bank Archives (Istanbul, 1998), donated by Kenneth MacKenzie; Bianca Gera and Albina Malerba, Una strenna di mani (Turin, 1997); Fabio Gigante, Monete italiane dal '700 ad oggi. 6a edizione (Varese, 1997), donated by Gianni Paoletti; C. van Hengel, Penningen Hollants (Amsterdam, 1998); Hector Carlos Janson, La moneda circulante en el territorio Argentino, 1767-1998 (Buenos Aires, 1998); Peter Kos, and Andrej Semrov, Zbirka Numizmaticnega Kabineta Narodnega Muzeja = The collection of the Numismatic Cabinet of the National Museum. II. Rimski novci in kontramarke iz 1. stoletja = Roman Imperial coins and countermarks of the 1st century (Augustus-Traianus) (Ljubljana, 1995); Chester L. Krause, and Clifford Mishler, Standard catalog of world coins, 26th edition 1999 (1901-present) (Iola, WI, 1998); Thomas Samuel Nelson Moorhead, Coins from coastal Palestine (Honours thesis for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1983); Musei Civici di Vicenza. Le monete romane imperiali da Augusto a Vitellio, a cura di Armando Bernadelli, Giovanni Gorini, e Andrea Saccocci (Padua, 1998); Neal W. O'Connor, Aviation awards of Imperial Germany in World War I and the men who earned them: Volume V- The aviation awards of the eight Thuringian States and the Duchy of Anhalt. (Princeton/Stratford, 1998); Bernhard Overbeck, Keltisches Münzwesen in Altbayern (Aventinum, Germany, 1996); Bernhard Overbeck, ed., Das Heilige Land: Antike Münzen und Siegel aus einem Jahrtausend jüdischer Geschichte, Texte von Bernhard Overbeck unter Zugrundelegung der wissenschaftlichen Bestimmungen durch Yaakov Meshorer - Sonderausstellung 1993/4 - (Munich, 1993); Giuseppe Ruotolo, Le zecche di Campobasso e Sansevero (1461-1463): Le monete del Conte Nicola II di Monforte (Termoli, 1997); Markus Wesche, ed., Die Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften und ihre Mitglieder im Spiegel von Medaillen und Plaketten, Numismatische Beschreibungen von Michaela Kostial. (Munich, 1997); Richard S. Yeoman, A guide book of United States coins. 52nd ed. 1999, Edited by Kenneth Bressett. (Sturtevant, WI, 1998).
        In addition to the above mentioned volumes, Francois X. Strauss, New York, donated several volumes from the library of his late father Peter Strauss. In early May, the Library received some 100 volumes from the Harry Bass Research Foundation. The volumes donated deal primarily with foreign or ancient numismatics. Other donations of auction catalogs and periodicals have been received from Catherine Bullowa Moore, Philadelphia, James Schwartz, New York, and Marvin Kushnet, Delmar, NY. Readers wishing further information concerning the above publications should address inquiries to the Librarian.

1998 Graduate Seminar in Numismatics

The 1998 Graduate Seminar will begin on Tuesday, June 16 at the museum. Eleven students from North American institutions have been awarded stipends in support of attendance, and two students from foreign institutions have been admitted. One of these, Katerina Panagaopolou of University College, London, will travel to New York as the beneficiary of the International Numismatic Commission's traveling stipend. The students, with their institutions and proposed fields of study, are as follows: Mary E. Downs, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Roman; Ildar H. Garipzanov, Central European University, Medieval; Melanie D. Grunow, University of Michigan, Roman; Daniel B. Hobbins, University of Notre Dame, Medals; Rachel Kousser, New York University, Greek; Elizabeth Marlowe, Columbia University, Roman; Scott J. McDonough, University of California, Los Angeles, Islamic; Katerina Panagopoulou, University College London, Greek; Nerina Rustomji, Columbia University, Islamic; Susan E. Spinale, Harvard University, Medieval/ Medals; Alexander G. Thein, University of Pennsylvania, Greek/Roman; Christine M. Thompson, Tufts University, Greek; and Peter van Alfen, University of Texas, Greek.
The Visiting Scholar for the 1998 Seminar will be Christopher J. Howgego, who is in charge of Roman coins at the Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Dr. Howgego is best known as the author of Greek Imperial Countermarks and, more recently, Ancient History from Coins.
Stipends in support of attendance at the Seminar are made possible by a generous donation from Mr. and Mrs. Eric P. Newman.


Finance Museum Names Director Finance Museum Names Director

        New York's Museum of American Financial History, located on lower Broadway in the financial district, has named Brian Thompson its new Executive Director. A former senior advisor at the National Archives, Thompson brings a variety of skills to the position and will be responsible for building the museum's visibility and support as it enters its second decade. He succeeds Diane Behrens, who held the position since 1993.
        The museum, founded in 1988, is dedicated to telling the story of American finance that has made NYC the financial capital of the world. On display currently is "Rags to Riches–The Financing of America, 1776-1836," providing insights into the financing of the American Revolution, including numismatic aspects.
        For information on the Museum of American Financial History, readers may call 212/908-4110 or e-mail to mventrudo@financialhistory.org.


 CNL 108 Published CNL No. 108 Published

        Serial #108 of The Colonial Newsletter has been mailed to subscribers. This, the August 1998 issue, represents the collaborative effort of several participants to reexamine a 50-year-old mystery in Colonial numismatics - the Stepney [Connecticut] Hoard of Colonial and Confederation coppers. This cache was first described by Walter Breen in the January 1952 Numismatist in his classic paper, "Survey of American Coin Hoards." Since so many important details about this deposit were never revealed, a healthy skepticism developed which questioned the authenticity of the find. Was it actually a deposit of coppers buried in 1788 as claimed, or was it a purposeful collection of pristine coppers assembled during a later period?
        The report that these coppers, buried in an iron kettle for 162 years, escaped significant corrosion has remained another stumbling block for some to accept the find as a genuine hoard. Professor Terry Lenz helps to elucidate this controversy. In this 46-page article, the multiple aspects of this mystery are discussed where proponents from both sides of the question express their opinions. We are particularly pleased to show photos of actual specimens of very high grade Connecticut coppers from the hoard, courtesy of Donald Groves, Robert Martin, and The Colonial Newsletter Foundation. Additionally, six uncirculated Machin's Mills imitation halfpence from the Eric P. Newman collection are plated. Among the later is the famous 1776 CEORCIVS III REX [Vlack 9-76B] which was the key that unlocked another numismatic puzzle, the subject of Newman's often quoted article, "A Recently Discovered Coin Solves a Vermont Numismatic Enigma." It is left up to the reader to decide whether the hoard was fact or fancy. As Q. David Bowers, a contributor to the study commented, "Sometimes hoards and treasures keep their secrets well!"
        Earlier this year, the principal author, CNL Editor Philip L. Mossman, presented this topic as the inaugural lecture at the Groves Forum in American Numismatics at the American Numismatic Society under the title, "The Stepney Hoard of Connecticut Coppers, 48 Years After the Fact (?)." This topic has stimulated much interest among specialists in pre-Federal numismatics and has raised many other collateral issues, most important among which concerns the geographic distribution and circulation of the copper medium. Since more questions are asked than answered, this current paper is another example of why the pre-Federal period is such an appealing area for numismatic research and numbers so many devoted followers.

CNL Available from ANS
        The Colonial Newsletter is published three times each year by the ANS. It is available as a perquisite of ANS membership when requested. Non-members may enter an annual subscription to the journal for $16.00.

 ANS Leads FIDEM Delegation ANS Leads FIDEM Delegation

        The Twenty-Sixth biennial congress of the Fédération Internationale de la Médaille will be held in The Hague, Netherlands, from October 21-through 24. Twenty-two individuals have registered to participate in the U.S.A. Delegation, led by ANS Curator of Medals Alan Stahl, who also serves on the Comité Executif of the international organization.
        The theme if the Congress, "influences," will be most evident in the large exhibit of medals to be on view at the Beelden aan Zee sculpture museum during the meeting and through the fall. Rather than the usual biennial exhibition of current medallic work, this show will comprise three parts, chosen to illustrate the influences of recent medallic traditions in each country on contemporary work and suggest future directions for the art of the medal. Each country's delegation has selected work in three categories: medals made between 1947 and 1972, medals made between 1972 and 1992, and medals by young artists or of an innovative character. Most of the USA delegation's exhibit in the first two categories was selected from the rich holdings of the American Numismatic Society's medals cabinet, and will be on loan from the Society for the show.
        Dr. Stephen K. Scher, member of the Society's Council will give one of the plenary addresses to the Congress on the subject of the Italian renaissance portrait medal and its place in the history of art. Other members of the USA Delegation include ANS fellows Leonda Finke, Cory Gillilland, Ira Rezak, Alex Shagin, Ralph Sonnenschein; and members George S. Cuhaj, Sarah Lawrence, Beverly Mazze, and Thomas Sheehan. Information on joining the USA Delegation, or on FIDEM in general, can be obtained from Alan Stahl at the ANS.