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Saturday, 14th October 2023; Nihon Room, Pembroke College, Cambridge

This one-day seminar, convened to coincide with the retirement of RNS President, Dr Martin Allen, from the Fitzwilliam Museum, brings together experts in numismatics and monetary history for a day of fascinating papers. Speakers will present new research on medieval and early modern money drawing on databases and metal detector finds, metals analysis, coin hoards, and written sources. For further details, please contact Richard Kelleher at rmk34@cam.ac.uk. To book tickets, click here. 

Programme:

Arrival and registration.

10.20. Introduction/welcome (Luke Syson and Richard Kelleher)

Session 1. Chaired by Elina Screen

10.30. Andrew Woods – ‘The Corpus of Early Medieval Coins Finds and English gold shillings’

10.50. Rory Naismith – ‘New Silver in the Seventh Century’

11.10. Jonathan Jarrett – ‘”All That Glitters”: Problems with XRF Analysis of Byzantine Gold Coinage’

11.40. William R. Day Jr – ‘Foreign coins in English shipwreck treasures during the Edwardian period’

Session 2. Chaired by Richard Kelleher

12.00. Barrie Cook – ‘The social context of medieval English hoards’

12.30–14.00 – Lunch break

14.00. Murray Andrews – ‘Medieval and Tudor coin finds from English and Welsh churches’

14.20. Megan Gooch – ‘The Tudor mint and archaeological finds at the Tower’

14.40. Svein Gullbekk – ‘Medieval money and digital currencies’

15.00–15.30 – Coffee break

Session 3. Chaired by D’Maris Coffman

15.30. Chris Briggs – ‘Extortion and the money economy in early fourteenth-century Lincolnshire’

15.50. Tony Moore – ‘The “Allen anomaly”: Using foreign exchange rates to track gold-silver ratios in early fifteenth century Europe’

16.10. Craig Muldrew – ‘The Flow of Coins in the Possession of the attorney John Plumbe of Wavertree Hall in the 1740s’

16.30. Closing remarks (Martin Allen)

This event has been made possible thanks to generous financial support from the British Numismatic Society, the UK Numismatic Trust, CNG Coins, Noonans, and Spink and Son Ltd.

The Warburg Institute is undergoing a multi-million Pound refurbishment. Works are now starting on the basement where the RNS/BNS Library is housed. Our books are to be moved to a new temporary location on the refurbished 4^th floor of the Warburg. From the 11^th September 2023, the procedure for entering the Library is as follows:

Reader’s Card

All RNS/BNS members wishing to visit the numismatic library will need to register for a free Warburg Institute Reader’s Card. This can be obtained from the Warburg duty librarian’s desk – they are issued by the Warburg and not by the RNS/BNS.

To get your reader’s card, please bring valid photographic ID (e.g. passport, driving licence, national ID card), proof of address, and be prepared to show a recent (i.e., within a year) copy of the RNS e-newsletter on your phone, laptop computer, or as a printout (please ensure your email address is visible); this will act as proof of Society membership. 

Opening Hours

From 11^th September, the numismatic library will be accessible 5 days a week! No longer just Tuesday afternoons. 

During this refurbishment, the Warburg is only open on weekdays. Please check the Warburg Institute website for opening hours and days (https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/library-collections-0/library/opening-times)

Location

During the refurbishment (August 2023 – Spring 2024), the numismatic library will be located on the 4^th floor of the Warburg Institute (see floorplan below).

Rare books / Locked section

Until the RNS/BNS Library is moved to its permanent location in the Warburg (Spring 2024), all items in the rare books / locked section of the numismatic library will be inaccessible. This is to keep them safe during the refurbishment; these items will be stored in a secure location. Once the move is complete, our numismatic library will be available to significantly more readers and with vastly extended opening hours: our library will be open to all members of the RNS, the BNS and all Warburg readers – it will be on open shelves rather than in our own locked room.

The RNS/BNS Librarian role remains unchanged.

Finally, I’d like to thank the RNS/BNS Duty Librarians who have given up their time to keep the library open to our members – their commitment and enthusiasm is greatly appreciated.

Brad Shepherd

Hon. RNS/BNS Librarian.

This volume contains 15 papers presented to the Seventh century Syrian Numismatic Round Table held at Corpus Christi College Oxford in September 2022. The Round Table was formed over 30 years ago with the aim of bringing together numismatists, archaeologists and historians with an interest in the 7^th c. Byzantine and Early Islamic coinages of Greater Syria and the surrounding area. 6 papers deal with Byzantine coinage, 7 with Arab-Byzantine coinage, with single papers on caliphal lead seals, monetary weight standards in Syria after the conquest and the reforms of Abd al-Malik. Almost all of these are based on new research and well over 400 coins are catalogued and illustrated, including a number of previously unpublished varieties.

The book is available from the publishers www.archetype.co.uk for £32 or from the editor at a.goodwin2@btopenworld.com  

Free attendance – online or in-person
Registration now open!

A conference designed specifically to broaden the field of numismatics and create opportunities for all to engage with coins, banknotes, tokens and medals in an inclusive and welcoming space.A full and exciting programme of talks is now 

live, giving an emphasis to the voices of women, people of colour, those from the LGBTQ+ community and anyone who has a passion for numismatics but has not necessarily found that existing forums for sharing their study, research or work have been the right place. Talks will be on a range of subjects as diverse as Roman, Indian, and Anglo-Scandinavian coinages, the part coins had to play in the creation of a modern Afghan state, and the history of collecting. There will also be a presentation and discussion on the celebration of queer lives on coinage – and much more!

Register here: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNTJFO8f9AGprKoVl5QyXWrCp50xkDajLCtVOSzzlXl5AfvA/viewformRegistration and in-person attendance also includes a tour of the Bank of England Museum.A number of 

travel bursaries have been made available thanks to the generosity of the UK Numismatic Trust and the British Numismatic Society. The deadline for applications is the 

25th August:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfWT6C7vviZCZTB_Jy5ACUNd6E089p-LNDcLTnK6R3wtsgMGg/viewform

By ROGER BLAND

Royal Numismatic Society Special Publication 60, 2023

This book presents a detailed die-study of the issues of the mints of Antioch in Syria and Caesarea in Cappadocia from the reign of Gordian III (AD 238-44). The coinage of Antioch consisted of two series of radiates with Roman legends and four series of tetradrachms and 3,818 coins of Antioch and 1,312 silver and bronze coins of Caesarea are included in the die-study. All the dies are illustrated in 100 plates.

The study shows how to distinguish the radiates of Antioch from those of Rome and examines the relationship between radiates and tetradrachms of Antioch. The former coins have traditionally been classed as ‘Roman imperial’ and the latter as ‘Roman provincial’. The dies for the coinage of Caesarea were also produced by Antiochene engravers, which had not been noticed before.

Further chapters examine chronological problems, the metal content of the silver coins of Gordian’s reign (over a hundred analyses are published here for the first time), the evidence for their circulation in hoards and site finds and the historical events of Gordian’s reign. These findings are summarized in the conclusion, which sets the coinages of Antioch and Caesarea in their historical context.

Roger Bland is the outgoing President of the Royal Numismatic Society. He retired in 2015 as Keeper of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory at the British Museum. 

548 pages + 100 plates, 1,414 illustrations in text. ISBN 978-0–901405–39–6

£80 (£60 to Fellows of the RNS)

Available from: Spink & Son, www.spinkbooks.com