Coins at the Luxembourg Museum

As you may infer, I spent yesterday in Luxembourg. I had a much better time than I was expecting, due to the presence of good company and the surprising quality of the museums. I found it novel that several of the artifacts were not encased, so I could be up close and personal with them. Of course, there were the coins. The first museum I went to had a massive and impressive collection of stellar coins including FDC aurii and denarii, hoards of hammered gold and silver, and much more high-grade Roman bronze. I tried taking pictures of everything interesting, but sometimes the lighting was too poor or the photos were sub-par due to the encasement. But here are my efforts:

First you are greeted by various hoards found in the area, which are labeled as to where and when they were found.



Then you have a display case with very high-grade Roman Republic coins (though my pictures can't really show how nice these were )

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Then you had a case with some Greek and Imperial Roman coins.

 

Dozens of large, impressive hammered gold were on display. @panzerman 's mouth is sure to water.



Hundreds of Celtic coins were on display, and they were often displayed with the Greek/Roman issues they were imitating.



(This one is going on the want list.)



Then came hundreds of pieces of hammered silver, mostly issues minted in Luxembourg.



(This also is going on the want list)

 

Then lots more FDC aurii/solidi



I thought that was it to the coins. There were five levels below the main one (innovatively carved directly into the bedrock) dedicated entirely to the archaeology of the region. There were two more levels that had impressive displays. These are the highlights (and all are gold, even though it may not look like it).



And with that I will conclude my boistrous photo dump, though there was so much more I could show you. I think there are already too many pictures in this thread. But if popular demand requests additional pictures, I'd be happy to oblige.

 

Those are some great photos!
I would love to see more, with a short description, too.

 

Nice show and tell. I'm surprised some artifacts were left unencased. I've heard that museums don't especially like to handle coins, or at least they present certain challenges. They can only be fully appreciated up close, but to make that happen is to risk easy theft when you can pop one into your breast pocket.

 

Spectacular -- enough to make anyone's mouth water!

 

Wow, wonderful coins. Thanks for sharing the photos.

 

Wow, it seems unusual for a museum to make such an effort to display coins.

Good for them!

Love the pictures and story.

We all want to know about your trip and how you are doing.

Because we care about our members and we are nosy as heck.

John

 

PS> I think your photos turned out really well considering they were of a museum exhibit. Very hard to photograph usually due to glass in between, low lighting, etc.

 

Wow! Thank you for the photos! I was planning a trip to Luxembourg this Summer to visit the museums and see the coins on display but Im cancelling my plans- cheaper just to visit this thread.

 

The uncased artifacts are just the big honkin' ones that would draw attention if you tried to take them.

But interestingly, there were several coins missing from the exhibits, though there was clearly a place for them. I just assumed they were being moved around from one place to another. I hope none of the workers are doing anything nefarious.

 

Great coins! I wonder when they are going to get around to cleaning the uncleaned hoard! I couldn't make out any of those coins individually...

 

I was surprised that some of the photos came out as well as they did.

 

I doubt they are going to. More interesting as is.

They had 3 other cleaned Roman hoards on display. I took no photos of them because they were all common, generic coins.

 

Excellent thread @TypeCoin971793! I really enjoy seeing how different museums around the world handle thier collections. They all seem to have a different approach.

 

Nice pics, always enjoy seeing more if you have them.

 

Thank you!

 

Cool pics

 

Due to several requests for more pictures, here are more pictures.

Wallpaper I am sure you will all enjoy.



The medals room. To give you a sense of scale, the smallest of these is 1 foot in diameter.



A rather large and impressive 15th-Century gold medal.



Medal struck in extremely high relief. The image was basically 3D and popping out of the coin.



Molds used for punching out flans to be struck as coins.



Lots of old books to make your mouths water.



A really cool 17th-Century lockbox.