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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtisimo, post: 2890823, member: 83845&quot;]Hello coin friends!&nbsp; I&#039;ve been meaning to share a few pictures and thoughts with you all for a while pertaining to the Archeological Museum of Split and its fantastic collection of ancient coins!&nbsp; The thing that struck me about this Museum when I visited it is how much of the exhibit was devoted to showcasing the coins. I am sure that there are other museums with collections that are more extensive but in terms of the percentage of coins to other artifacts I&#039;ve never seen an Archeological museum with such an emphasis on ancient numismatics.</p><p><br /></p><p>Our tour guide when we were visiting Salona told us that the majority of the collection was discovered in the ruins of Salona.&nbsp; I assume, considering the variety and the completeness of the collection, that the museum also purposefully acquired many of the specimens.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]694679[/ATTACH] </p><p><i>Ruins of Salona</i></p><p><br /></p><p>When you enter the museum you come into a courtyard that is filled with sculptures, mosaics and and other physical remains that were uncovered from Salona (which was the Roman provincial capital).</p><p>[ATTACH=full]694539[/ATTACH]</p><p>As a ancient coin collector I tend to equate the steady decrease in artistry on coin portraits during the third century with a general decline in high art across all mediums. However, a quick look around the courtyard of the museum shows that artists of the late 3rd century were still producing impressively artistic objects like the above sarcophagus that was excavated at Salona.</p><p><br /></p><p>Moving through the courtyard you come into the central space of the museum. It&#039;s here that you get your first glimps of all the numismatic eye candy!</p><p>[ATTACH=full]694541[/ATTACH]</p><p>There are two separate wings to the left and right that deal with the pre-historic and modern periods of Split respectively. The larger central space (pictured above) takes you in a linear progression of the region&#039;s history from Greek to Byzantine as you move from left to right around the museum. The tall cases that you see house the majority of the coins on display with artifacts and the rest of the coins sandwiched between them that relate to each time period.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]694647[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]694648[/ATTACH] </p><p><i>A selection of Greek coins on display</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Even though you can&#039;t see both sides of the coin with this display method the museum has multiples of several of the coin types that they place side by side.&nbsp; Some coins that the museum has only one example of show the obverse and others the reverse which makes me curious what the factors were that led to the decision of which side to show?? </p><p>[ATTACH=full]694652[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]694653[/ATTACH] </p><p><i>Roman Republican Coins</i></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]694668[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]694669[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]694671[/ATTACH] </p><p><i>A select few coins of Trajan, Otho and hometown favorite Diocletian!</i></p><p><br /></p><p>There were a lot more interesting coins and types I wanted to look through and photograph (I could have spent all day in there) but I thought perhaps it would be best not to overtax my girlfriend&#039;s patience (she is great and tries to take an interest in my hobby <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />) Overall I was impressed by how much attention was given to the coins. In some cases a few of the coins were shown separately from the other coins with a write up on how that type fit in with the history of the region.</p><p><br /></p><p>So what do you all think? Have any of you been to a museum and been pleasantly surprised at how the museum handled the ancient coin display?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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