Happy New Year from the RNS – and some article samples for those January evenings!
2017 passes with some great RNS memories, including the fascinating medallist’s talk and Christmas party on 19th December, but also with sadder memories, and Society members no longer with us, including Robert Thompson, whose work with the library will be missed greatly, as he will be for his kindness and intellectual generosity. We look forward to 2018 and a programme of future talks and events. If you have any events coming up connected to numismatics, which you would like to advertise to Society members, please contact Rebecca Darley (r.darley@bbk.ac.uk) to have these posted on the website. 
2017 has also been a exciting year for the website, with various ‘back-stage’ changes, which in 2018 we hope to capitalise on to roll out increased benefits to members. The first of these, as part of the Society’s ongoing relationship with Jstor, is the provision of sample Numismatic Chronicle articles. These will be freely available online, without Jstor log-in. Each will consist of 3-5 important articles for each of the subject areas covered by the Numismatic Chronicle. Each one will be accompanied by a short introduction to that area of numismatics, made available on the website as a guide to non-specialists and a way of welcoming new and future Society members. These samples can be downloaded or read online, shared with friends and fellow numismatists and made available in classrooms or via personal websites (preferably via a link to the Society website!).
A Byzantine solidus of the emperor Arcadius (r. 395-408), struck in Rome.
If you have specific numismatic interests and have sometimes wondered about other regions or periods, these catalogues are a great way to start browsing, or, if you are new to the Society, a good chance to begin exploring the fabulous wealth of scholarship available via Jstor in older issues of the Chronicle. The first of these selections is now available for Byzantine and Aksumite numismatics, along with a new summary introduction. Updating of the article list associated with each of these subject areas is also on-going.
If you are not yet a member of the Society, but find these articles interesting, please consider joining for free online access to the Numismatic Chronicle via Jstor. The Numismatic Chronicle is the journal of the Society and one of the most respected journals of numismatic research. Membership of the Society automatically includes a copy of the Numismatic Chronicle, which will be sent to you annually. Over the past few years the Society has worked with Jstor to digitise and make available online back issues of the Numismatic Chronicle, from 1836 up to, currently, 2013. This incredible body of scholarship is now readily available electronically to students, lecturers and teachers, collectors and enthusiasts worldwide.
For members of institutions with a subscription to Jstor (most universities in the UK, growing numbers abroad, and increasing numbers of schools and public libraries) these articles are free to read and download. For other readers they are available for the cost of a Jstor membership and pay-per-article options will also be available in the near future. For Society members, access to the Numismatic Chronicle via Jstor is another benefit of your annual subscription. Currently this requires requesting log-in details. If you have any difficulty doing this, please do not hesitate to contact Rebecca Darley (r.darley@bbk.ac.uk). We are also looking carefully at ways to make this log-in process easier and quicker for members, so watch this space…
Happy New Year!
This lecture accompanies the Society’s annual Christmas party. Please join us at 
As you may have noticed, the RNS website has recently changed its appearance. This is a result of updates to ensure its continued stability and usability, and to enable future improvements. The changes should not have affected the content of the website, though some hyperlinks may not work properly for the next week or so. If, from mid-December onwards, you spot any links which are broken, please do let Rebecca Darley know (r.darley@bbk.ac.uk).