My visit to the National Numismatic Collection at the Museum of American History.

First of all I must apologize for the lack of subject specific pictures from this exhibit. This trip was a whirlwind trip. The goal of the trip is to introduce the 5th and 6th graders to D.C. in hopes of sparking their interests through a tangible experience to interact with our Nation’s history. As such the coordinators must balance the amount of places the kids get to see with the time we have for the entire trip.

Because of the lack of time, the pics that did get taken were in somewhat of a hurry and I was hoping to show the size and depth of the display but I think I even failed in that regard…by then I was just overwhelmed with everything we wanted to get in.

Funny story, when I got to the museum, I specifically (after reading this article) went right to the information center and asked the folks there were the new National Numismatic Collection Exhibit was located. The map of the museum, shows two exhibit areas which have to do with money. So I was sure to ask which one was the newer. The lady I spoke with kinda curled up her eyebrow and pointed it out on the map and we made our way there. Imagine my disappointment when I entered the broom closet that had been pictured here many times previous. And even more to my dismay almost a quarter of the displays had been removed. I was pretty let down. I figured something was amiss. We went ahead and finished that wing’s exhibits (First floor, East Wing). When we were done, I figured we'd try to locate this “other” exhibit (which was about money) which on the map was the the opposite west wing, and see what that was about.

Eureka! This was the new exhibit which was covered in the above coin world article, and this one, as I said before, is a massive improvement to the old display. First of all, one immediately realizes why half of the coins were removed from the old exhibit room, they're over here! The second thing that you will notice is that the footprint of this new exhibit is, and this is a guess, 15-20 times larger in foot print than the old. It has tons of space, and the lighting for the displays are very well done. You can really see and read what is displayed. The old one is kind of dim and hard to read the lower the exhibits are to the floor. The room itself is dark overall, but this only pulls you into each display case which has little, but bright, spot lights which light up whatever is in that particular case. Below almost every display is at least 2, maybe 3 in some places, rows of drawer which house even more items and when the draws are pulled out, they light up giving ample lighting to read and see what’s being displayed.

The exhibit room is flanked by an open vault door as you approach (didn’t get pics because I wasn’t really sure on my entrance that this was *it* but here is one from the intewebs)



Immediately to the right of the entrance (as you face the entrance from the outside) is a display that highlights two coins and a canister from the Saddle Ridge hoard, which were donated by the owners. The scale of the can was surprising to me. I had read about them, but to see one up close and personal is just different. From that point as you continue on to the left of the room (left now as you face the Saddle Ridge display) there are just cabinets and drawers full of displays. I wish I’d had the time to look at it all, but again we were on a tight time frame and had a ton to see.




Directly to the left of the Saddle Ridge Hoard display is this:


Here are pics of some of the displays cases and the drawers


The drawers that were mentioned



One thing that I found particularly interesting is the collection of world gold coins in the very left display of the above pic. This was donated to the Smithsonian. The collector who put it together was Josiah K Lilly Jr. who was from the Eli Lilly Family of Eli Lilly and Co. who were all from right here in Indiana where I live. I have toured the Lilly estate before.

This last pic is to show just how large the exhibit room is. This is the front left hand quarter of the room (when facing the entrance from the inside of the room) so if you can imagine a square split up into quarters this is the north west corner. This room was literally full of items..I did not get to look at everything.



The employee who was in charge of this exhibit was not a collector, but seemed very interested in what I had (lacking as it is) to offer by way of knowledge and information. I told him to join cointalk.com and let folks know here that he is from this exhibit. not sure if he's come here yet...he wrote everything down. My hopes were to get a person out here who was interested in coins (which he seemed to be growing in) and also someone who could answer questions if there were any.

Hope this at least conveyed in some detail how cool this thing really is. I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there.

 

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One followup, I failed to mention that they have on display the Pattern 1974 Aluminum Lincoln Memorial Cent, that was cool to see...unfortunately I failed to take a pic.

 

nice write up, thanks for letting us see your trip

 

I was there a couple years ago when all they had was the "broom closet". I'll have to make another trip in the future.
Nice report!

 

Nice essay.......bet the kids had a blast.

 

Great write-up! It's a pity the museum employee couldn't draw the connection between the National Numismatic Collection and the new exhibit with money in it. Perhaps she was trained using an old brochure.

 

Either that, or, the seeing eye dog seated next to her couldn't read.......