Women in Numismatics

--See? Why were you 'astounded'? In part because you were a victim (--prevailing wisdom aside, a still valid word, in the English language) of an accretion of mostly pre-verbal cues. ...Given which, glad you were astounded. The world desperately needs people like you, who are willing to learn what's there to be learned.

 

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I don't think I was astounded because she was a woman in numismatics. Just astounded at the knowledge she had amassed and had on display. Anyone, man or woman, who has such an impressive knowledge base about a certain topic is astounding to me.

 

Busted! :<}

 

My wife is reading it now. It will be interesting to hear her perspective. She started going to meetings with me a few years ago. Last year she was voted in as club president for the local club. Now she has added bourse chair for the state club to her titles. I have mixed feelings about both of these.

Important to note: she still doesn't really collect anything coin related. Here only real collection is a large group of Challenge coins from her military days.

 

I don't know what coin clubs are like today but in the past most of them were very closed door associations. I'd like to relate my own experience of joining the Rochester Numismatic Association (RNA) in 1984. In 1980 I opened a coin & antique store on East Main St. & about a half dozen members of the RNA would frequent my store regularly & 3 of them became active buyers. I didn't know any of them were RNA members until several years later. One day a regular asked me if I would be willing to give a talk at an RNA meeting. As it turned out this man had just been elected president of the RNA & it was the president's obligation to line-up speakers for the year. Since I was in the business I thought it would be a smart way to drum up some business . I had a large display of Karl Goetz medals in the store & was asked to talk about his medals. My German was still pretty good in those days so I agreed. I spoke before a crowd of about 45 members with only 1 woman present. They were very enthusiastic & gave me a standing ovation ! The next day the president of the RNA asked me if I wanted to become a member & said he would be my sponsor (you needed a sponsor to apply for membership). He then explained I would have to attend 3 meetings & after the 3rd meeting the members would vote in secret. If any member objected my membership would be refused . I was intimidated by this process but went along with it anyway . They voted me in & I stayed a member for about 10 years, & gave many more talks on a variety of subjects . Very few people applied for membership in that decade & a number of people were rejected. There were no minority members during that decade. Many of the members were wealthy & most of them were retired. Some of these members like John Jay Pittman, would bring in coins worth in excess of 100 K for show & tell ! In 106 years only 5 women were chosen as president of the RNA . In the decade I was in business I don't recall one female coin collector entering my shop, although better than 90% of my antique collecting customers were female .

 

After I captured this coin, I was fascinated by the provenance. E.E. Clain-Stefannelli is an incredibly fascinating person. An inspiration for my collecting.

Since this coin, I have captured several coins of hers.

I business I always had roughly 50/50 Female/Male staffs. Some of my best Engineers were female. I also was well acquainted with the Senior Engineer for the Jaguar Engine works when I lived in the UK. I never really cared what sex an individual was, more to it, I was most interested in their brain-case and what they could contribute to our businesses.

I have 6 daughters and have always asked them only to do their best and to pursue happiness in their lives.



Etruria, Populonia
2 ½ asses , AR 0.85 g
3rd century BC
Obv: Radiate female head r.; behind, CII.
Rev: Blank.
Ref: EC 104 (misdescribed, Female head with an Attic helmet). Historia Numorum Italy 179.
NAC Comment: Of the highest rarity, apparently only the second specimen known. Dark patina and about very fine.
Ex: From the collection of E.E. Clain-Stefanelli
(@ancientcoinguru further pointed out and had me further research E.E. Clain-Stefanelli's excellent provenance...

E.E. CLAIN-STEFANELLI DIES

ANS Executive Director Ute Wartenburg reported that
Elvira Eliza Clain-Stefanelli died Oct. 1, 2001 of cardiac
arrest. Mrs. Stefanelli retired in 2000 as the Senior
Curator of the National Numismatic Collection in the
Numismatics Division of the National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
DC.

She was at the Smithsonian for forty years, and was
responsible with her husband Vladimir for organizing and
building up the National Numismatic Collection. She
survived a Nazi concentration camp in WWII Europe,
moved to Rome, and learned numismatics there. In New
York she and her husband worked for Stack's and started
the Coin Galleries division there.

Her most recent publication was "Life In Republican Rome
On its Coinage", a lavishly illustrated discussion of the
themes which appear on the coinage of the Roman Republic,
published in 1999. Her major contribution to the science of
numismatic literature was her classic "Numismatic Bibliography",
published in 1985.
Elvira E. Clain-Stefanelli (1914-2001) and her husband Dr. Vladimir Clain-Stefanelli (1914-1982) were academic numismatic historians and later numismatic authors and curators. They pursued their interest in ancient coinage of the Black Sea region and U.S. medals as a team, serving together as members of the American Numismatic Society and numerous other national and international numismatic organizations. Vladimir became an ANS Associate in 1951 and a Fellow in 1957; Elvira became a Fellow in 1963. The two were frequent visitors to the Society when they worked for Hesperia Art Galleries and then Stack’s in the 1950s. In 1956 Vladimir became curator of the Smithsonian's Division of Numismatics; a year later, Elvira joined him as Assistant Curator. Together, they built the National Numismatic Collection from approximately 60,000 specimens in 1956 to almost one million objects. Two years after Vladimir's death in 1982, Elvira became the department's first executive director, holding that position until her retirement in 2000.
Dr. Vladimir Clain-Stefanelli (born Waldemar Günther Klein, but later changing the spelling of his surname to Clain and adding Stefanelli, his mother's maiden name) was born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, Austria (now part of the Ukraine and Romania). Vladimir was initially a well-known specialist of Eastern European coinage, in particular of his native Romania. He also specialized in historical documentation of United States coinages as well as coinages of Greek colonies and southeast European issues of the 15th and 16th centuries. Vladimir received a B.A. and M.A. in 1936, and Ph.D. in 1938 from the University of King Carol II in Austria. His 1938 doctoral dissertation, concerning the ancient coinage of Callatis, is included in the collection. Vladimir married the former Elvira Eliza Olinescu on January 3, 1939. After WW II, the couple moved to Italy where they worked for the P&P Santamaria firm. They moved to the United States in 1951, where they would live out the remainder of their lives.
Elvira E. Clain-Stefanelli was born in Bucharest, Romania. She received a degree in history from Franz Josef University in 1936 and later an M.A. in history from the University of Cernauti in Romania. Working with her husband after his appointment as manager of Stack's Coin Galleries subsidiary in 1954, Elvira wrote their first sales catalog. She joined the Smithsonian staff in 1957. In 1973 Elvira, along with her husband, received the Smithsonian Gold Medal for Exceptional Service. In 1996, she received the ANA's Farran Zerbe Memorial Award for Distinguished Service. During her numismatic career, Elvira was advisor to the U.S. Mint, the Department of Treasury, and many boards, committees, and associations.
Together or separately, Elvira and Vladimir Clain-Stefanelli wrote and published many important works including: Monetary history and medallic art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C (Numisma, año) (1965); History of the National Numismatic Collections (1968); La monnaie: trésor d’art (1971); Medals Commemorating Battles of the American Revolution (1973); The Beauty and Lore of Coins Currency and Medals (1974); Chartered for Progress, Two Centuries of American Banking: A Pictorial Essay(1975); Muenzen der Neuzeit (1978); Numismatic Bibliography (1984); Life in Republican Rome (1999).

 

@Al Kowsky and we wonder why people think that coin dealers/collectors are oftentimes jerks.

 

. my wife doesn't have to "allow" me to do anything.. and she also doesn't require my permission to follow her interests.

But I get it.

 

I don't see what the big mystery is or that it should be cause for real concern. Men and women often like and gravitate towards different things, as anyone who is (or was!) married can easily attest. If coin collectors are overwhelmingly male so be it. That said, I'd like to point out that the two current standard references on Visigothic coinage, a collecting area of interest to myself, were written or co-authored by women - La Moneda Visigoda, by Ruth Vazquez Pliego, and Corpus Nummorum Visigothorum, by Jesus Vico Monteoliva, Maria Cruz Cores Gomendio, and Gonzalo Cores Uria.

 

There is a website/club called https://www.womeninnumismatics.com that's dedicated to women in numismatics.

 

She was always more active on the PCGS forums, and still is. She just posted occasional show reviews here and on the NGC forums.

Charmy is one of the most active members of the "Women in Numismatics" club.

And I agree, her table is a must-stop for copper collectors, and her educational displays are often top-notch award winners.

 

I know I might get some objections on this but to be honest one main barrier for many women to collect high quality ancient coins is the cost. As we stand today on average, a man earns much more than a woman doing the same job so no wonder why Male collectors prevail the female ones!

 

There are probably very wealthy woman out there that do not want others to know about their coin collections.

 

Sounds like exactly the kind of book I'd like! So I just ordered a copy on Abebooks. It was published by the Smithsonian, specifically the National Museum of American History. Not sure why.

I've found everyone's comments in this thread very interesting, although I strongly disagree with any implication that the disparity is somehow genetic. That's baloney! The impulse to collect beautiful objects that are simultaneously of great historical interest -- whether coins or anything else -- is hardly exclusive to men. I'll try to give some further thoughts tomorrow. Speaking strictly for myself, of course; I wouldn't dream of pretending that I'm some kind of representative here for other women.

 

A couple of notable scholars include Ulrike Peter, who is currently responsible for the development of the web-portal www.corpus-nummorum.eu, and Marguerite Spoerri Butcher, currently part of the Roman Empire project, based at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

 

On a slightly more mundane level, isn't the person who runs Wildwinds a woman? There have been many prominent women in numismatics -- on the academic side, as dealers, and/or as collectors -- since back in the 19th century.

 

Yes, her name is Dane Kurth, a.k.a. Helvetica.

 

Yes, Dane Kurth.

 

I think I have that book somewhere, just not read it yet.

Everything written after “EE Clain-Stefanelli Dies” is copied from the obits I found and copied here.

I am confused by your last paragraph. I did not make any of those comments or implications.

 

I wasn't implying that you did; that's why I preceded what I said by referring to finding all the comments in this thread interesting. The reference to that implication was to a comment by someone else entirely.