The British Museum Department of Coins and Medals is a department of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

involving the collection, research and exhibition of

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...

, and comprising the largest library of numismatic artefacts in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, including almost one million coins, medals, tokens and other related objects. The collection spans the history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day, and is representative of both

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

numismatic traditions.

History

Numismatics constituted an important part of the 1753 bequest of

Sir Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

which formed the British Museum's original collection, comprising some 20,000 objects. The collection was incorporated into the Department of Antiquities in 1807, before the establishment of a separate Coins and Medals department in 1860–1. As in other parts of the museum, the department has been able to expand its collection by purchase, donation and bequest. The department has benefited from the munificence of collectors such as

Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode (1730–1799) was an English book and old master print collector, and a major benefactor of the British Museum. Life His father, Colonel Mordaunt Cracherode, later a general, had command of the marines in George Anso ...

, Sarah Banks,

Edward Hawkins Edward Hawkins (27 February 1789 – 18 November 1882) was an English churchman and academic, a long-serving Provost of Oriel College, Oxford known as a committed opponent of the Oxford Movement from its beginnings in his college. Life He was bor ...

, Sir Alexander Cunningham and George Bleazby. A significant strength of the collection are British coins from all ages, which have benefited from the ancient law of

Treasure Trove A treasure trove is an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the hei ...

. This has enabled the museum to purchase important hoards of gold and silver coins, many of which were buried during periods of crisis or upheaval. There are approximately 9,000 coins, medals and

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

s on display around the British Museum. More than half of these can be found in the Citi Money Gallery (Gallery 68), while the remainder form part of the permanent displays throughout the museum. Items from the full collection can be seen by the general public in the Study Room by appointment. The department celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2011.

Research, publications and exhibitions

The Department has a strong research history, which underpins publications (see, for example, the British Museum Catalogues of Coins), exhibitions and other activities. Publications associated with exhibitions * 1881 ''A Guide to the English Medals Exhibited in the King’s Library'', by Herbert A. Grueber * 1881 ''A Guide to the Italian Medals Exhibited in the King’s Library'', by C. E. Keary * 1883 ''The British Museum

artin Artin may refer to: * Artin (name), a surname and given name, including a list of people with the name ** Artin, a variant of Harutyun, an Armenian given name * 15378 Artin, a main-belt asteroid See also

{{disambiguation, surname ...

Luther Exhibition, 1883, in the Grenville Library'', by George Bullen * 1924 ''Guide to the exhibition of historical medals in the British Museum'' * 1924 ''A guide to the exhibition of medals of the Renaissance in the British Museum'', by G. F. Hill * 1975 ''2000 years of coins and medals'', by J. P. C. Kent * 1979 ''Art of the Medal'', by Mark Jones * 1986 ''Money: from Cowrie shells to credit cards'', by Joe Cribb * 1987 ''Contemporary British Medals'', by Mark Jones * 1987 ''As good as gold: 300 years of British banknote design'', by Virginia Hewitt and John Keyworth * 1990 ''Fake? The art of deception'', by Mark Jones * 1992 '' FIDEM XXIII: In the Round: Contemporary Art Medals of the World'', ed. Philip Attwood * 1993 ''Silk Road coins: the Hirayama Collection. A loan exhibition at the British Museum'', by Katsumi Tanabe * 1993 ''The Hoxne Treasure: an illustrated handbook'', by Roger Bland and Catherine Johns * 1994 ''Beauty and the Banknote: images of women on paper money'', by Virginia Hewitt * 1995 ''The Banker’s Art'', ed. Virginia Hewitt * 1996 ''After Marathon: war, society and money in fifth century Greece'', by Ute Wartenberg * 1998 ''Humphrey Cole: Mint, measurement and maps in Elizabethan England'', ed. Silke Ackernann * 1998 ''Convict love tokens: the leaden hearts the convicts left behind'', by Michele Field and Timothy Millet * 1999 ''Magic coins of Java, Bali and the Malay Peninsula, thirteenth to twentieth centuries'', by Joe Cribb * 1999 ''Metal Mirror: Coin Photographs'', by Stephen Sack * 1999 ''Size immaterial: handheld sculpture of the 1990s'', by

Luke Syson Luke Syson is an English museum curator and art historian. Since 2019, he has been the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, prior to which he held positions at the British Museum (1991–2002), the Victoria and Albe ...

* 2000 ''Rebels, pretenders and imposters'', by Clive Cheesman and Jonathan Williams * 2003 ''Italian Medals c. 1520–1600 in British public collections'', by Philip Attwood * 2004 ''Badges'', by Philip Attwood * 2008 ''Chairman Mao badges: symbols and slogans of the Cultural Revolution'', by Helen Wang * 2009 ''Medals of dishonour'', by Philip Attwood and Felicity Powell * 2010 ''Money in Africa'', ed. by Catherine Eagleton, Harcourt Fuller and John Perkins * 2011 ''Eric Gill: Lust for Letter & Line'', by Ruth Cribb and Joe Cribb * 2013 ''Coins and the Bible'', by Richard Abdy and Amelia Dowler * 2014 ''Hard at Work: The Diary of Leonard Wyon 1853–1867'', by Philip Attwood * 2015 ''Hoards: Hidden History'', by Eleanor Ghey * 2016 ''Defacing the Past'', by Dario Calomino * 2019 ''Playing With Money: Currency and Games'', by Robert Bracey (London: Spink) * 2020–22 ''Rivalling Rome. Parthian Coins and Culture'', by Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Alexandra Magub (London: Spink, 2020, reprint, 2022) Other publications * 1920
Grains and grammes. A table of equivalents for the use of numismatists
', by G. F. Hill

Members of the Department

In addition to being numismatists, staff of the department have also been distinguished linguists, historians, archaeologists, art historians, classicists, medievalists, orientalists, and authors:For further details, see ''The British Museum and the Future of UK Numismatics. Proceedings of a conference held to mark the 150th anniversary of the British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals, 2011'',. edited by Barrie Cook (British Museum Research Publication 183, 2011), p. 86. . https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/research_publications_series/2011/the_future_of_UK_numismatics.aspx

Keepers (Head) of the Department

* William Vaux, from 1861 *

Reginald Stuart Poole Reginald Stuart Poole (27 January 18328 February 1895), known as Stuart Poole, was an English archaeologist, numismatist and Orientalist. Poole was from a famous Orientalist family as his mother Sophia Lane Poole, his uncle Edward William Lane an ...

, from 1870 * Barclay Head, from 1893
Herbert A. Grueber
from 1906 * George Hill, from 1912 * John Allan, from 1931 * Stanley Robinson, from 1949 * John Walker, from 1952 *

G. Kenneth Jenkins Gilbert Kenneth Jenkins (2 July 1918 – 22 May 2005) was a leading figure in 20th-century numismatics. He was the post-war generation's most important expert in the study of Greek coins and medals and would become Keeper of Coins and Medals at the ...

, from 1965 * Robert Carson, from 1977 * John Kent, from 1983 * Mark Jones, from 1990
Andrew Burnett
from 1992 *

Joe Cribb Joe Cribb is a numismatist, specialising in Asian coinages, and in particular on coins of the Kushan Empire. His catalogues of Chinese silver currency ingots, and of ritual coins of Southeast Asia were the first detailed works on these subjects ...

, from 2002
Philip Attwood
from 2010

Staff

Richard AbdyJennifer Adam
* Derek Allen
Benjamin Alsop
*

Marion Archibald Marion MacCallum Archibald (1935 – 23 April 2016) was a British numismatist, author and for 33-years a curator at the British Museum. She was the first woman to be appointed Assistant Keeper in the Department of Coins and Medals and is regarde ...

Edward Besley
*

Roger Bland Roger Farrant Bland, (born 3 April 1955) is a British curator and numismatist. At the British Museum, he served as Keeper of the Department of Portable Antiquities and Treasure from 2005 to 2013, Keeper of the Department of Prehistory and Europ ...

Maxim BoltRobert BraceyCecile Bresc
* George C. Brooke
Dario Calomino
*

Ian Carradice Ian Carradice is an authority on the coinages of ancient Greece, Rome, Persia and Carthage, and the history of museums. He is the former professor of ancient numismatics at the University of St Andrews and the director of the museums of that univer ...

* Taylor Combe
Barrie CookVesta Sarkhosh CurtisMichael DolleyAmelia DowlerCatherine Eagleton
*

Elizabeth Errington Elizabeth Errington is a specialist on the archaeology of Gandhara and the collections of Charles Masson, and a numismatist specialising in Asian coins. Biography Errington grew up in Potchefstroom in South Africa and gained a diploma at the Jo ...

Henry Flynn
*

Percy Gardner Percy Gardner, (24 November 184617 July 1937) was an English classical archaeologist and numismatist. He was Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1879 to 1887. He was Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and ...

Leigh GardnerEleanor Ghey
* Andrew Gifford
Megan Gooch
*Amanda Gregory *

Virginia Hewitt
*Mary Hinton
Richard HobbsThomas Hockenhull
* Francis Keary
Richard KelleherParamdip KheraJanet Larkin
*Kirstin Leighton-Boyce
Ian Leins
*Keith Lowe * Nicholas Lowick *David MacDowall
Alexandra Magub
*Joan Martin * Harold Mattingly
Andrew MeadowsSam Moorhead
*Elvina Noel
John Orna-OrnsteinElizabeth Pendleton
*Laura Phillips *Stuart Lane Poole *Jane Portal
Venetia Porter
* Martin Price * Edward Rapson * Richard Southgate
Luke SysonPhilippa Walton
* Helen Wang
Ute WartenbergJonathan WilliamsGareth Williams
* Warwick Wroth

Gallery

File:British Museum gold coin of Croesus.jpg, Gold coin of Croesus, Lydian, modern Turkey, c. 550 BC File:Chinese knife money.jpg,

Knife money Knife money is the name of large, cast, bronze, knife-shaped commodity money produced by various governments and kingdoms in what is now China, approximately 2500 years ago. Knife money circulated in China between 600 and 200 B.C. during the Zh ...

made from bronze, China, 4th-3rd centuries BC File:Alexander coin, British Museum.jpg,

Tetradrachm The tetradrachm ( grc-gre, τετράδραχμον, tetrádrachmon) was a large silver coin that originated in Ancient Greece. It was nominally equivalent to four drachmae. Over time the tetradrachm effectively became the standard coin of the An ...

Lysimachos Lysimachus (; Greek: Λυσίμαχος, ''Lysimachos''; c. 360 BC – 281 BC) was a Thessalian officer and successor of Alexander the Great, who in 306 BC, became King of Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon. Early life and career Lysimachus was ...

with the head of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, Greece, about 305-281BC File:Tetradrachm Ptolemy V.jpg, Tetradrachm issued by

Ptolemy V egy, Iwaennetjerwymerwyitu Seteppah Userkare Sekhem-ankhamun Clayton (2006) p. 208. , predecessor = Ptolemy IV , successor = Ptolemy VI , horus = '' ḥwnw-ḫꜤj-m-nsw-ḥr-st-jt.f'Khunukhaiemnisutkhersetitef'' The youth who ...

, Greece, 204–181 BC File:British Museum Alton A Hoard.jpg, 50 gold

stater The stater (; grc, , , statḗr, weight) was an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece. The term is also used for similar coins, imitating Greek staters, minted elsewhere in ancient Europe. History The stater, as a Greek silver curre ...

s of

Commius Commius (Commios, Comius, Comnios) was a king of the Belgic nation of the Atrebates, initially in Gaul, then in Britain, in the 1st century BC. Ally of Caesar When Julius Caesar conquered the Atrebates in Gaul in 57 BC, as recounted in his ...

Tincomarus Tincomarus (a dithematic name form typical of insular and continental Celtic onomastics, analysable as ''tinco-'', perhaps a sort of fish f Latin ''tinca'', English ''tench''+ ''maro-'', "big") was a king of the Iron Age Belgic tribe of the Atreba ...

and

Eppillus Eppillus (Celtic: "little horse") was the name of a Roman client king of the Atrebates tribe of the British Iron Age. He appears to have ruled part of the territory that had previously been held by Commius, the Gaulish former ally of Julius Caesa ...

Alton Alton may refer to: People *Alton (given name) *Alton (surname) Places Australia *Alton National Park, Queensland * Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne Canada * Alton, Ontario *Alton, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Alton, New Zealand, ...

, southern England, 1st century BC - 1st century AD File:Roman gold coins excavated in Pudukottai India one coin of Caligula 31 41 and two coins of Nero 54 68.jpg, Roman coins of

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...

and Caligula found at

Pudukottai Pudukkottai is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is a large city located on the banks of the Vellar River. It has been ruled, at different times, by the mutharaiyar dynasty , Cholas, ...

, India, 1st century AD File:TrajanCoinAhinposhBuddhistMonasteryAfghanistan.jpg, Coin of Trajan from Ahin Posh Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, 2nd century AD File:Battriana, monete d'oro del IV secolo 03.JPG, Gold coin from Bactria, Afghanistan, 4th century AD File:Honorius Hoxne 1.jpg, Gold coin of Emperor Honorius from

Hoxne Hoard The Hoxne Hoard ( ) is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by ...

, England, 4th-5th centuries AD File:Gold coin of Kumaragupta I.jpg, Gold coin of

Kumaragupta I Kumaragupta I (Gupta script: ''Ku-ma-ra-gu-pta'', r. c. 415–455 CE) was an emperor of the Gupta Empire of Ancient India. A son of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II and queen Dhruvadevi, he seems to have maintained control of his inherited te ...

, Gupta Empire, India, 415–455 AD File:Wigmund archibishop of York 837 854 gold solidus.jpg, Gold

solidus Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to: * Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold * Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark * Solidus (chemistry), the line on a phase diagram below which a substance is completely solid * ...

of Wigmund, Archbishop of York, northern England, 837-854 AD File:Nasr II Nishapur coin 921 922.jpg,

Nasr II Nasr ibn Ahmad or Nasr II ( fa, نصر دوم), nicknamed "the Fortunate", was the ruler (''amir'') of Transoxiana and Khurasan as the head of the Samanid dynasty from 914 to 943. His reign marked the high point of the Samanid dynasty's fortunes. ...

, Nishapur coin, central Asia, 921-922 AD File:Aethelred II gold mancus 1003 1006.jpg, Aethelred II gold mancus, England, 1003-1006 AD File:British Museum Ming banknote.jpg, Chinese

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...

banknote for 1

guan Guan may refer to: * Guan (surname), several similar Chinese surnames ** Guān, Chinese surname * Guan (state), ancient Chinese city-state * Guan (bird), any of a number of bird species of the family Cracidae, of South and Central America * Guan ( ...

, China, 1375 AD File:Quentin metsys, medaglia di desiderio erasmo.JPG, Renaissance medal of

Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

, by Quentin Massijs, Holland, 16th century AD File:British Museum Sharja Hoard.jpg, Hoard comprising 78 Persian silver coins from

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital ...

, United Arab Emirates, late 17th century AD File:8 Reales, 1770, British Museum 1.jpg, 8 Reales silver coin minted in Potosí, Bolivia, 1770 AD

References

{{coord, 51.5195, -0.1269, region:GB-LND, display=title Archaeological museums in London British Museum History of museums Museums established in 1753 Numismatic museums in the United Kingdom