National Numismatic Collection

There are pictures of the Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection.
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/national-numismatic-collection

 

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Thanks for the link. i really like the New England stuff.

 

There are 8 pages of pictures.

 

Maybe it's changed but I visited it about 3 years ago and was a bit underwhelmed. The items exhibited were unique and interesting but housed in a rather small room one could peruse in about 15 minutes.

 

Whatever happened to talk of building a dedicated museum for the numismatic collection? Must have been 10 years or so ago they were fundraising for it, but I haven't heard anything about it in a long while.

 

On the one hand, I don't hold out a lot of hope for new museum construction in the current climate.

On the other hand, it's got lots of sparkly gold, so maybe it'll get fast-tracked.

 

Or disappear.

 

This one caught my eye, an 1891 50c Barber pattern. I'd never seen it before. What's interesting is that the inner ear detail is what Barber changed in 1901, which then looked more like this pattern. He did the same with the dime obverse in 1901 - made the inner ear look more like the 1891 dime pattern. It's like he wasn't happy with them for 10 years and finally "fixed" it.
https://www.si.edu/object/50-cents-united-states-1891:nmah_1100114

I was also surprised that their 1913 Liberty nickel wasn't highlighted, but there's a lot to pick from I guess. And yet they highlighted a bunch of old credit cards as "numismatic"? Strange.

Here's their 1913 Liberty nickel. https://www.si.edu/object/5-cents-united-states-1913:nmah_835247

And what? There's another one in there that I've never seen listed as one of the five known. I guess it must be a counterfeit, but there's nothing said about it, just the images. https://www.si.edu/object/5-cents-united-states-1913:nmah_1089036

 

Last time I was there, about 10 years ago, there were coins at exhibits other than inside the room dedicated to the NNC. There was no guidebook that listed which exhibits contained coins. You had to walk around and discover them.

Mike

 

If you're in or near Washington, D.C. that's a must see. Been there several times over the years and always manage to see something new.