Today, I visited the Eric P Newman Money Museum in the basement of the Kemper Arts Museum at Washington University. Here are some feelings about the visit: They had more coins on display than the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (in terms of sheer numbers)...but if I can walk through the place and think "I have coins that are just as nice as these, if not way better..." then I have to wonder what they chose NOT to display. It was interesting to see a few coin scales, and some versions of the $3 bill. I also found the section on counterfeits interesting, as well as slave trade tokens. The Library, containing hundreds of books on coins/paper money/etc (including those by Mr. Newman) was locked. I checked at the front desk and it's opened by appointment only. Gotcha. I thought the most interesting item in the Museum was the coin sorting "till" filled with about $500 face value of gold coins. However, in general I found the overall quality of the coins on display to be really uninspiring. Low end, damaged, "junk" coins...on the occasions where there were nicer coins, they were displayed in greater detail by having a cut out photocopy placed next to them. There wasn't a single coin that I saw and went - "Christ, this reminds me of why I love collecting coins and learning about the artwork and history of the nations/people that produced them." Not a single coin. Am I that picky, or are there serious liability issues with displaying actually valuable coins in a St. Louis museum? Now, before you think I'm just digging on the Newman Museum, the display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History had a 1913 Liberty Nickel on display (a multi-million dollar coin.) It was basically resting on two pins on a high-end cardboard display. No label, no information about its history. So if the Smithsonian is lazy with its coin displays, why should I fault the Newman Money Museum? Also, there is no website for the museum, and the only digital media involved a creepy life-sized Benjamin Franklin with a motion-sensored audio recording (didn't say anything about money/coins.) I couldn't help but think they should hire me to come in and photograph some coins and prepare some video presentations... It was free. The parking lot was full except, thankfully, a couple metered spots. I put 1 1/2 hours worth of change in there, thinking I might have so much fun I'd be there over an hour...and I think I was back in my car in a 1/2 hour. Best part of the trip? Seeing one of those "wind tornados" blowing fall leaves...directly around a student walking through the parking lot. It even followed her around for about 15 seconds. Wonder what was going through her mind...
Thanks for the write up and thoughts. I've never visited that gallery but have been to the Wash U. Art Museum in the past, specifially to look at their modern art exhibitions. On a recent visit to the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park, just across the way from the University, I can't recall seeing ANY coins on display, not even among the Greek and Roman collections. Coins are often considered problematic for display in many museums. Curatorial staff even like to clean the coins! Coin displays are not really set up for collectors and usually exist just to show the depth of a museum's holdings and flesh out the history of an era's other works, like in an Ancient gallery. Coins are usually considered difficult for museums to keep on display or to warrant devoting enough floor/vitrine/wall space. They are problematic in that they often can't show visitors all sides of the coins. Many museums even sell their coins as they take up space and sit in storage recesses of curatorial departments going unseen and uncalled for in academic research. Being so small in a display, thus hard to see behind a case, under glass and such, they lack much WOW factor. Many museums consider all this and opt to sell them for money and freeing up storage and display space for greater works. A few years back, The Augustus Saint-Gaudens show in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art focused on his lifetime achievements and provided a historical context for his work, but totally underwhelmed the very small display of coins, of which substantial early examples were lent and shown, but only one side and nothing you could hover over and view in intimate detail. I was, however, happy to attend and shared thoughts about it in this thread, at the time. Ultimately, for museums, I think their coin collections are best served to public study utilizing museums' digital libraries of collection holdings. Many museums are actively adding all works to their database of holdings and they encourage the public to use these libraries, but it's not always nice to look at art or objects on a digital display. Say when looking at say a gilt 13th Century Italian altar panel on a digital screen you would ever enjoy the subtly and delicacy of paint, nor sense the scale of a monumental sized chuck of modern sculpture that's physically larger than you. Coins however are becoming (due to online forums, auctions, shopping, etc.) much more common and properly imaged for sharing between those who regard them.
This is an example of a couple of pieces usually on display in a back corner case of the Roman Antiquity galleries at the Met in NYC. You can see how small the coins are, and difficult to see under their spotlight style lighting. The coins, obviously smaller than the label, photographed through glass about (1 foot deep). This was as close as I could get with a regular camera with no special close-up zoom lens. You can't shoot with tripod in a museum without permission and of course you can't see the back of these wall mounted coins. Those pins holding the coins are usually brass and have to be lightly hammed into the wall board.
Here's a link to an article on Coin Week that I read earlier this year, which might be interesting to readers of this thread as well: Why Museums Hate Ancient Coins by Mike Markowitz May 23, 2014 I almost think the title of the story doesn't need "Ancient" as it often applies to all coins. Another thing to the OP... since you are in St. Louis, you might enjoy the new-ish museum at Jefferson Barracks of Civil War history. They have currency (paper money) on display there. It's a nice, private collection, in a nicely restored 100 year old barracks structure at JB. mcwm.org
I had a chance to see those exhibits at his old museum before it moved to the current location and before the sales of his collection. The coins on display at that time were more impressive. i'm afraid be "wow" coins have gone to auction and have been replaced with average stuff. Same thing happened witht eByron Reed collection in Omaha. The sold off a lot of the old proofs with the promise to replace them with lower grade pieces. The quality of the display dropped and the proofs sold off were never replaced.
I own a couple of the trade tokens issued by Jefferson Barracks. I wonder if they have any on display...
There were no JP tokens on display at this museum, but the barracks has other military history museums, too. However I have not seen them in those exhibitions either. The Civil War museum gift shop at JB sells elongated pennies at the point-of-sale area of the shop (near cashier counter). Some coin collectors collect elongated coins.
I would say the reason there were no coins that really gave off a wow factor is the fact is wasn't an exhibit to show off coins. It was an exhibit about money. Coin collectors would love to see the amazing coins that were in the collection but to the average person off the street they likely will not have the appreciation of such coins.
Were the $3 bills errors ($2 on one side & $1 on the other side)? If so, then that would be the holy grail of error bills.
