REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 35 
tion with them is displayed a very large and fine set of papal medals, 
dating from 1192 to 1910. The coinage of the Netherlands, Norway, 
Poland, Portugal, Roumania and Russia follows, and of the coins 
and medals of Spain there is an exceptionally interesting series, in- 
cluding a large number of pieces struck for circulation in the Span- 
ish-American countries. The European collection ends with some 
excellent examples of early and recent coins and medals of Sweden 
and Switzerland. Its greatest desideratum is of ancient Greek and 
Roman coins. 
The Asiatic and African countries whose coinage is shown are 
China, Japan, Persia, Siam, Abyssinia, Algeria, Liberia, Morocco 
and Turkey. The Chinese representation is the largest, numbering 
over 2,000 pieces and covering the period from about 700 years B. C. 
to the present time. The bulk of this collection was a bequest from 
the late George B. Glover, and many modern copper pieces have 
been added by Mr. N. Gist Gee, of Soochow University, China. The 
Japanese series is also important; beginning with the sixteenth cen- 
tury, it is brought down to the latter part of the nineteenth century. 
Postal tokens—At the beginning of 1908 the subject of postage 
stamps was illustrated in the Museum by only a small miscellaneous 
collection of domestic and foreign issues numbering about 2,500 
pieces, and it is interesting to note that the principal contributor had 
been Mrs. Spencer IF’. Baird. In the year named, however, through 
the munificence of Mr. David Cromwell, of New York, the Museum 
received an exceptionally fine series of about 20,000 specimens repre- 
senting the United States and nearly all foreign countries. These 
stamps were almost without exception well preserved, uncanceled 
copies, which had been assembled by the collector with much care 
and at great pains, and were therefore especially suitable for public 
exhibition. Though lacking in many important particulars, this 
collection was installed as a unit in a series of cases designed for the 
display of manuscripts but well adapted to this purpose, which are 
located in the smaller hall of history, as already explained. 
In 1912 the Museum obtained by transfer the more essential parts 
of the large exhibition of the Post Office Department, comprising as 
its most valuable and important feature the stamps, stamped enve- 
lopes, and postal cards of all the nations of the world, to the number 
of nearly 200,000, and since then there has been a constant accretion 
from the same source. The original collection consisted primarily 
of a large cabinet with sliding frames, in which the main series of 
stamps had been installed, including those printed for the United 
States by private firms from 1847, the date of the first Government 
issue, until 1894, when the work was taken up by the Bureau of 
Engraving and Printing, and the subsequent issues from this bureau; 
