NUMISMATICS-AN ANCIENT SCIENCE 



A Survey of its History 



By Elvira EUt^i Clain-Stefaiielli 



INTRODUCTION 



This study has been prompted l)y the author's 

 observation that many people resjard nuinismaties 

 simply as coin coUectins;, a pleasant hobby for young- 

 sters or retired persons. The holder of siicii a view- 

 point is unaware of the sco[)e and accomplishments of 

 a historical investi<;ation that traces cultural evolution 

 throus^h one of the basic aspects of everyday human 

 life: money. Seen as a reflection of past aspirations 

 and accomplishments, coins are invaluable sources 

 for scholarly research, but few people are aware of 

 the tremendous amount of work done in this field by 

 past generations. 



The present monograph is intended to give only a 

 synoptic view of the complex world of numismatic 

 research. An area of knowledge that spans centuries 

 and contains such varying fields as primitive media 

 of exchange, coins, paper money, money substitutes, 

 tokens, medals, and decorations, can hardly be given 

 a detailed history by a single person in a single work. 



Even in a survey such as this, before such wealth 

 of material, many omissions are unavoidable, and, 

 since this work is also intended for the n(jnprofes- 

 sional, other omissions have been made to facilitate 

 the presentation. Authors and their works have been 

 carefully chosen to illustrate the main line of progress 



within specific areas. Citations of their books and 

 articles are given in shortened form in the footnotes, 

 willi full references appearing at the end of the paper. 

 Because coin collections have supplied the raw 

 material for much in\estigation, the histories of some 

 of the major private and public collections also have 

 been included in this survey. 



In my research, I have had an excellent guide in 

 Ernest Babelon's chapter "l.a nutnismati(]ue et son 

 histoire," published in 1901 as part of the first volume 

 of his Trailf des monnaies grecques et romaines: Theorie 

 et doctrine. Material on recent accomplislunents has 

 come from reports given by specialists to the inter- 

 national numismatic congresses. But without the 

 helpful assistance received from leading European 

 numismatists on the occasion of my v-isits to various 

 numismatic museums, this study could not have been 

 com])lcted. 



I am indei)ted to Dr. Nils T.ucKig Rasmusson, 

 Director of the Kunglig Myntkabinettet of the 

 Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm, as well as 

 Professor W'illy .Schwabacher and Mrs. Ulla S. 

 Linder Welin from the same institution for their 

 kind interest in reading the galleys. Through their 

 suggestions I have been able to benefit from the wide 



BULLETIN 229: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOGY 



