Doug had a post earlier that reminded me of this question. Has anyone ever read who would be a candidate for the first numismatist. By that I mean someone who doesn't collects coins just as curios, but to study, conserve, and spread knowledge of them. I have never seen a good story about this I can recall. I have read a lot of the numismatic movement related to the renaissance, but do not know if this is the oldest. I know Augustus "collected" coins as curiousities and appreciated the artwork of Greek coins, but I wouldn't classify him as a numismatist. Chris
I don't know that anyone can answer that definitively. But the first printed book on coin collecting was produced in 1511 not long after the Guttenberg Bible (the first printed book). So that gives you some idea of the importance of the subject at the time. But it should also be noted that this book was based on not only personal observations but on many, many hand written notes and dialogues on coins. And oddly enough, the book was written by a woman. Now that should open some eyes about women's involvement in the hobby. The web site that provided this info is dead, so I cannot post a link to give further info. But it was noted that some of these hand written tomes dated back to ancient times. Now I can't prove it, but the right researcher probably could. But I suspect that you could have found writings about coins in the Library of Alexandria.
By no means do I think he is the earliest but King Vittorio Emanuele III collected italian coins going as far back as the Roman Empire and I think he published a book about them. Not the earliest but a more well known early collector / numismatist. Victor Emmanuel III had a passion for coins. May 9th was a very important date in his life: on May 9th 1881 Colonel Egidio Osio became his tutor and transmitted to him the passion for coins; their relationship, affectionate on both sides, is documented in over 400 letters (from 1881 to1902) written by Victor Emmanuel, all mentioning coins, new acquisitions, books. On May 9th 1946, at the moment of leaving Italy for Egypt, Victor Emmanuel donated his coin collection to the Italian people; a collection that – as he wrote –was the greatest passion of his life: the gravity of this remark does not diminish the magnitude of the gift and the scale of the collection (over 100,000 coins, dating from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West to the Unification of Italy, issued by Italian mints, in Italy and abroad). On top of this, the King left a work as grand as the collection itself: the 20 volumes of the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum, which he edited personally, with the help of a number of successive numismatic secretaries. Moreover, the collection is also an enormous archive, considering that each coin has a ticket, personally handwritten by the king, recording provenance, auction or dealer with price, or name of donors (many were given to him by his family or subjects).
Farouk of Egypt was also a big collector , not too sure if he contributed much in the literary world Among the more famous of his possessions was one of the rare 1933 Double Eagle coins.
Petrarch? Bude? It all depends on where you draw the line. To me, the first real students of numismatics were probably employees of rich collectors who were tasked by their masters with arranging the master's coins. Some of their names are known. I recommend (highly) a little book Numismatics an Ancient Science by Elvira Eliza Clain-Stefanelli, Bulletin 229, Paper 32, from Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, Government Printing Office 1965 $1 (you will pay more and mine is not for sale). http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...ect=true&qid=1281119925&sr=1-10&condition=all $35 is too much buy $5.28 is cheap IMHO. This question is like, "Who discovered America?"
Was this one of the books for sale from the Smithsonian a while ago? I bought all foreign/ancient numismatic books they has when it was posted in Moneta their availability. I do know they had her early numismatic bibliography, I have that and recently got her complete one from a Kolbe auction. Nice book. Yes, I have to admit I do not know all of the coin books I own. I should start a spreadsheet.
It was once sold for $1 at any GPO outlet but I don't know when they ran out. No one should know all their books. How else are we to feel dumb when we buy duplicates?
So, how am I to feel when I buy duplicates KNOWING it is a dup? Sorry, but if I see a book on Ebay too cheap, cannot keep finger from bid button......... I have been threatening Zack Beasley with having him sell my dup's on his Vcoins store. I really should think about that more.
I have some books that I'd like to sell, too, but I usually balk at asking as little as I think some of them are worth or telling people they are even worth owning. Some of the old stuff hardly strikes me as worth the paper it is printed on but if I paid $20 for it back then I'm too stubborn to let it go for $2 now. Certainly there are great ones but they are the ones I want to keep. Can't win.
I have stuff like Sears Byzantine, Sears GIC and Greek, RIC's, BMC Kyrenaica, Sayles books, ANS etc. I buy them if I see a great deal, figuring I will give them to someone, but never finding that someone I guess. I think I would be more likely to get rid of them if I traded or something lol. I have what you describe as well, I hate those. Old versions of Hendin, outdated RIC, KM, etc. I never know what to do with them either. Maybe Ebay, that is where most old crap goes to die.
Peter the Great was the first Russian numismatist. He published the order for the Russian noblemans: "each nobleman must have his own coin collection". You can see his portrait - my avatar.
The Chinese have been collecting their own coins for centuries. Although none survive, there are references to coin books written at least as far back as the Tang Dynasty! Somewhere I saw scans of Japanese coin books written in the 17th century.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I wanted to thank Doug for recommending this book, I got it a couple of days ago and its a good read. Very informative regarding history of coin collecting, but the history of numismatics as a true science. I also would recommend it to anyone who wanted to read more about numismatics as a science and history of coin collectors and collecting. It is a softcover, (paper cover) book, though, so condition usually isn't the greatest. I got mine for $1 though.
Pythagoras is believed to have worked as a celator in the 6th Century BC, engraving dies on some of the earliest Greek coins, I'm sure he must have kept a few examples of his handiwork, as well as those of others for comparison. Maybe this qualifies him as one of the earliest known numismatists.....
