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CCNB Newsletter No. 36 December 2005 The Newsletter of the Coordinating Committee for Numismatics in Britain

CONTENTS The CCNB Newsletter is supported by the British Museum, the Royal Numismatic Society and the British Numismatic COENWULF MANCUS FUND Society. The Newsletter appears triannually, and is received by FOCUS ON PERSIA those members of the RNS and BNS resident in the United Ancient Persia in the British Museum Kingdom, and by others with an interest in numismatics and The Robert Speer Donation related fields.

NEWS Contributions and information will be gratefully received. Update on the Iron Age and Roman Coin Project in Wales Items for the next issue should be sent to Buried Treasure at Norwich Castle Museum Richard Abdy or Richard Kelleher, Horrid Treasures Conference, Norwich, 17 September 2005 Department of Coins and Medals, BANS Weekend, Worcester, 2-4 September 2005 British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, A new acquisition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery tel: 020 7323 8255/8640 fax: 020 7323 8171, In search of the Tutbury Hoard e-mail: [email protected] or A New Curatorial Appointment at the BM [email protected]. OBITUARIES Anyone in the UK wishing to be added to the CCNB EXHIBITIONS Newsletter mailing list should send their name and address to DIARY Richard Kelleher at the above address, or alternatively e-mail him at [email protected].

COENWULF MANCUS FUND is recorded for Coenwulf’s predecessor Offa, but there is less documentation for the reign of Coenwulf, so the coin provides The British Museum is hoping to acquire a unique gold coin important new information on a poorly documented reign. It is of Coenwulf, king of Mercia (796-821), one of only eight also interesting that London is described as a ‘vicus’ (trading English gold coins known from the later Anglo-Saxon period centre) rather than a ‘civitas’(political or ecclesiastical centre). c. AD 700-1066. All but one of the others are already in the Both terms appear in contemporary records, but the use of the British Museum. The seventh is in Lausanne in Switzerland, term ‘vicus’ here implies that in the context of this coin, where it was found. Each of the coins is unique, as is the new London was seen as a trading centre rather than a centre of Coenwulf coin. The exact denomination of the coin, which royal authority. weighs just 4.3 grams, is uncertain, since gold coins did not at The coin is beautifully struck and exceptionally well- that time form a large part of the circulating currency. It has preserved, and provides a unique insight into both the been interpreted as representing a mancus, a term which expression of royal power and monetary developments in appears in documentary sources referring to specific coins, England in the early ninth century. The obverse design is and as a unit of account, and as a unit of weight. However, derived from a late Roman imperial bust, which is typical for both dinars from the Islamic Caliphates and Carolingian solidi Anglo-Saxon coinage of this period. The engraving of the face circulated in international trade, and it is just possible that it and hair is much more carefully executed than is normal for should be considered as a dinar or a solidus, rather than as a the silver coinage, although other fine busts are known on the mancus, since there are imitations of both dinars and solidi Canterbury issues of Coenwulf and his brother Cuthred. The from northern Europe. The weight standards of all three are floral design on the reverse is unique in the ninth-century similar, but the weight standard of the mancus seems the best Anglo-Saxon coinage, but has parallels elsewhere in Anglo- match, and this, together with the appearance of the term Saxon art. The exceptional preservation of the coin reveals mancus in written records, has prompted the identification. details of the preparation of the dies from which the coin has The Coenwulf mancus is particularly important for a been struck, and a preliminary study of other Anglo-Saxon number of reasons. It may well be the first proper gold gold coins with a Scanning Electron Microscope reveals currency coin in the name of an English king, and it is similar details, invisible to the naked eye. This coin thus holds exceptionally well-preserved. Although the obverse design the key to greater understanding of the production processes and inscription are typical of Coenwulf’s silver coinage, the of Anglo-Saxon gold coinage, in addition to its own artistic reverse has a unique floral design, with the inscription DE merit and historical significance. VICO LVNDONIAE (from the ‘wic’, or ‘trading centre’ of A dealer has applied to export the coin to the USA, but an London). This has parallels with a gold coin of Coenwulf’s export license has been deferred until February 4th, 2006, to contemporary Charlemagne, with the inscription VICO allow the British Museum to raise the money to match the DORESTATIS. This is interesting because it suggests that selling price of £357, 832. The Museum has already raised Coenwulf, who was overlord of much of southern England as part of the money, and applications to a number of funds and well as king of Mercia, was probably playing one-upmanship charitable trusts are also pending, but we still have a shortfall games with the most powerful ruler in Europe. Such behaviour of a few thousand pounds. Any donations towards the cost of

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this spectacular coin would be very much appreciated. Cheques should be made payable to ‘The British Museum’ and should be sent to Coenwulf Mancus, c/o Gareth Williams, Department of Coins and Medals, The British Museum, London WC1B 3DG. For further information, please contact Gareth Williams, Curator of Early Medieval Coinage, telephone no. 020 7323 8257 or email [email protected].

Gareth Williams The Coenwulf ‘mancus’ (diameter 19mm)

FOCUS ON PERSIA

ANCIENT PERSIA IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

On 30 June 2005 a temporary exhibition on “Iran before Islam, religion and propaganda AD 224-651” opened to the public in Gallery 69a of the British Museum. This exhibition, which runs until 8 January 2006, deals with four hundred years of Sasanian rule and the inseparable relationship between kingship and the Zoroastrian religion. Coins, jewellery, silver bowls and seals are complemented by photographs of Sasanian rock-reliefs from the heartland of the Sasanian Empire in southern Iran. Just like the Achaemenid Investiture relief of Ardashir I (AD 224-241) at Naqsh-I Rustam, near Persian kings, the Sasanians came from the area of Persepolis. Persepolis They were keen to stress their connection with ancient Persia. Ardashir I (AD 224-241) copied the motif of an Achaemenid While part of the exhibition concentrates on the importance of throne from Persepolis onto the reverse of his coins. The kingship within a Zoroastrian context, another section deals Persian platform throne of Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes of with external policy and conflict with both eastern and the fifth century BC appears in combination with the western enemies of the Sasanian Empire. After the collapse of Zoroastrian fire altar on the coins of the first Sasanian ruler. the Sasanian dynasty and the arrival of Islam as the new religion in the middle of the seventh century AD, royal Sasanian iconography continued to influence Islamic art and coinage. In the nineteenth century, the Qajar rulers of Iran adopted Sasanian motifs such as the hunter king and the enthroned monarch on their coins and even imitated Sasanian rock-reliefs. The ancient Iranian concept of the God-given Glory was not abandoned after the fall of the Sasanians and titles such as “Khusrow” and “king of kings” were re-used by various Iranian and non-Iranian dynasties of the Islamic period.

Gold dinar of Ardashir I (AD 224-241) showing the Sasanian king on the obverse and a combination of the royal platform throne and Zoroastrian fire alter on the reverse

At Naqsh-i Rustam, near Persepolis, Ardashir I chose the site of the rock-cut tombs of the Persian kings to commemorate his investiture. Here, the new king of kings is shown receiving a diadem from Ohrmazd, the Zoroastrian Wise Lord. Both figures are mounted and their horses trample on their opponents: one is the defeated and dead Parthian king, Artabanus IV, and the other is the personification of the Zoroastrian Evil Spirit, who has snakes protruding from his head. Ardashir’s son and successor, Shapur I (240-271), continued with the same tradition at Naqsh-i Rustam and left behind a relief which celebrates his Roman victories over Philip the Arab and Valerian. Throne relief of Xerxes (486-465 BC) from Persepolis

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In September 2005 a major exhibition on ancient Persia was The viewer gets an impression of the monumentality and opened to the public at the British Museum. “Forgotten splendour of the palace decorations through the 19th century Empire: The World of Ancient Persia” includes objects from casts of reliefs from Persepolis in the British Museum the British Museum, the Louvre in Paris, the National collection. A plaster cast of the Darius stone statue found Museum of Iran in Tehran and the Persepolis Museum. The during the French excavations at Susa in 1972 has also come magnificent objects from Iran have rarely been seen outside from Tehran. The exhibition finishes with a show piece in the the country. They include Persepolitan relief fragments, form of the Cyrus Cylinder, which is hailed as the first human jewellery, coins, tablets and many other precious and rights charter. This object is part of the British Museum important objects. collection and was excavated in the nineteenth century near Babylon in modern Iraq. The ancient Persia exhibition will close on 8 January 2006 and will travel to Barcelona, where it opens next spring. All the objects are beautifully illustrated in a comprehensive catalogue (eds. J. Curtis & N. Tallis) and detailed essays deal with various aspects of Achaemenid history, art and archaeology.

‘Iran Before Islam: Propaganda and Religion 224-652 ’see www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/cm/cmnoex.html

‘Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia’ see www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/persia

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis

A COLLECTION AND A MISSION: Relief of Shapur I (AD 240-271) at Naqsh-I Rustam, near Persepolis ROBERT E. SPEER AND HIS COINS

The Malayer Hoard of Greek coins discovered in 1934 near Robert E. Speer, missionary, educator, and coin collector, was Malayer in western Iran, is on display and until now has never born in 1867 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. After going to left the country. This collection consists of 306 recorded coins study at Princeton, Speer found his calling as an active from around the Mediterranean, including Athens and Aegina, member of the Presbyterian Church. In 1894 he went on his but it is believed that this is not the full size of the original first missionary trip to Mexico, and two years later he set out hoard. Also on display is a silver foundation plaque and its on a world mission during which he caught Typhoid Fever in original box dating to the reign of Darius I (522-486 BC) from Persia. the Apadana Palace at Persepolis. They were discovered For the next decade or so Speer continued to work for the during Ernst Herzfeld’s excavations at Persepolis in 1934. At Church, living in New Jersey and raising a family. Then, in the same time gold and silver coins of c. 520-500 BC were 1909 he went to South America, and over the next decade his found beneath the foundation deposits. Two of the croeseids interest and efforts concentrated on that part of the world. In are on display in the Persia exhibition. 1921-2 Speer undertook a mission to India, Persia and China, Outstanding is the display of Achaemenid jewellery, which and this trip was followed later in the 1920’s by visits to South includes items from the British Museum’s magnificent Oxus America and the Far East. Treasure, jewellery from the British excavations of Pasargadae During all of these and other travels abroad, Robert E. in the National Museum of Iran, and jewellery from the Speer collected coins, his collection numbering almost 500 French excavations at Susa, now in the Louvre. Other coins at his death in 1947. This collection has recently been interesting objects, such as gold and silver rhyta and bowls acquired by the British Museum thanks to a generous donation show the wealth of the royal court. by his British grandchildren, and will be a valuable addition to the collections. The most important part of the collection is the material he acquired in the Middle East, during the 1896 or 1921 missions to Persia. Among the coins to be acquired for the British Museum are a number of Parthian bronze coins and some Sasanian coins which will complement those already in the collection. In addition, coins from a collection like Robert E. Speer’s are important because of what we know about the collector and the circumstances in which he acquired his coins, adding another dimension to the new acquisitions. Robert Speer’s commitment to education will also live on, with some of his coins going into the handling collection, for Silver drachm of Shapur I (AD 240-271) showing the portrait of the use on-gallery and with school groups who visit the king on the obverse and a fire and alter and attendants on the reverse department of Coins and Medals for the Wednesday morning

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Hands On Behind the Scenes sessions. Two of these, also aim to bring something of that thrill to hundreds of thousands Persian coins, are already in use out in the Money Gallery, as of visitors through the Hands On programme, to enrich their part of a new handling activity an the theme of money in visit to the British Museum, and also, perhaps, to inspire the Persia. There is something amazing about holding an next generation of coin collectors. Achaemenid Persian coin in your hand, knowing that it is around 2,500 years old, and thinking about the other people Catherine Eagleton who have held it, spent it, saved it, earnt it or collected it. We

NEWS exploration of spatial and chronological distributions of ancient coinage, and encourage the investigation of coin UPDATE ON THE IRON AGE AND ROMAN COIN supply and use in Wales during the later Prehistoric and Roman periods. PROJECT IN WALES The project was funded by the Board of Celtic Studies and Begun in October 2003, the finishing touches are now being directed by Peter Guest of Cardiff University. A Research applied to Iron Age and Roman Coins in Wales which will Assistant was employed for one year and Edward Besly of the soon be ready for publication. The aim of the project is to National Museums & Galleries of Wales provided invaluable produce and publish a detailed corpus of all ancient coins advice and assistance. found as excavated site-finds and casual finds (i.e. recovered by metal detector or field walking and reported through the Nicholas Wells Portable Antiquities Scheme), as well as a summary of coin hoards from Wales. BURIED TREASURE AT NORWICH CASTLE In total, 52,666 coins have been recorded from Wales; MUSEUM including 191 excavations assemblages, 217 hoards, 517 single finds and 192 ‘groups’ (a category comprising coins ‘Buried Treasure’, the first major Partnership UK exhibition, that could have been part of a hoard or a site assemblage). The reached its final location at Norwich Castle in July. It has been vast majority of the coins found in Wales are Roman in date - received very well and achieved much local media coverage. only 35 are Iron Age and 26 Greek/Hellenistic. The exhibition has also provided the opportunity to showcase some recent very important new finds from the county, including a superb Iron Age electrum torc and the largest Bronze Age hoard from Norfolk, found just weeks before the opening of the exhibition in Norwich. Associated events have been well attended, especially lunchtime gallery talks and themed evening events and a conference entitled ‘Horrid Treasure’, which highlighted some of the less glamorous material being discovered (see below). Some events have involved local finders of Treasure. Evaluation of the Norwich leg is currently underway. A debriefing seminar for the partners involved in this exhibition will be held at Norwich Castle on the 11th January, just prior to the closure of the show. The Eastern Daily Press have produced a commemorative magazine to accompany the Norwich leg of the exhibition, entitled, ‘Treasure: Your Past’.

John Davies

HORRID TREASURES CONFERENCE, NORWICH, 17 SEPTEMBER 2005

All Iron Age and Roman Coin Findspots in Wales This conference, held at the Castle Museum, aimed to explore some of the more prosaic objects found by metal detector each The details of each coin and the circumstances of the coins’ year that are rarely celebrated and could be regarded as discovery (including a detailed bibliography) were recorded aesthetically ‘horrid’. These objects, like base metal coins or on a custom-designed database linked to GIS. Thus, it is objects of iron or lead can provide us with important data possible to search and analyse the numismatic data from about past societies, information about the technologies and Wales in a variety of different ways – either generating techniques used to construct these objects, and their place as summaries of coins from individual sites, or producing tradable commodities. The conference was organised by distribution maps of coins of particular emperors, issue Adrian Marsden and Tim Pestell and was attended by a mixed periods, mints, metals, reverse types etc. It is hoped that the audience comprised of museum’s staff, numismatists, metal corpus (as well as an on-line database) will stimulate the detectorists and interested members of the public.

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Not Such Horrid Finds: Single Finds of Roman Gold Coins Anglo-Scandinavian Horsegear David Williams and what they can tell us Dr Roger Bland David Williams, Finds Liaison Officer for Surrey, presented a Roger Bland, head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, kicked paper which used PAS data to give an insight into the metal off the conference with a paper concerning a work in progress finds associated with horses and horse gear that are exploring the distribution of Roman gold coins in Britain. encountered in Britain. Using distribution data generated by the PAS he explained trends in the circulation of the gold coinage and its Richard Kelleher development through the centuries. The associations between find-spots of coins and Romano-British sites, be they of civic, votive or military nature was explained, and linked into geographical regional variance. BANS WEEKEND, WORCESTER, 2-4 SEPTEMBER 2005 Constantine’s Wolf and Twins Coinage Dr Adrian Marsden Adrain Marsden, Finds Liaison Officer for Norfolk, gave a The annual weekend of the British Association of Numismatic paper regarding his ongoing study of contemporary copies of Societies, with around thirty members present, took place for the ‘wolf and twins’ coinage of Constantine. Concerned the second year running at University College, Worcester, predominantly with his ‘Type II’, Adrian proposed his from 2 to 4 September, excellently organised by Joe Bispham classification of these irregular issues into various types and and generously supported by the Royal Numismatic Society sub-types. Using hoard evidence he gave an idea of the and the Royal Mint. Accommodation was in comfortable en potential production places and dating of the copies and of suite single study bedrooms, the food was excellent and the their general acceptance by the population as currency in a weather was perfect. period of shortage. On the Friday evening Angie Bolton, Finds Liaison Officer for Worcestershire, spoke about portable antiquities in ‘Barbarous Radiates’ and the origins of Carausian Coinage Worcestershire, including a wide range of artefacts but also Dr Matthew Ponting about a number of coins, including a round short cross farthing Matthew Ponting of the University of Liverpool presented a found near Pershore. paper that outlined an English Heritage funded project devised On Saturday morning there were papers by Kevin Clancy on to investigate the composition of metals in ‘radiate’ copies. He some 1893 patterns by Edward Onslow Ford, Edward Besly conjectured that the zinc content in radiates and early on civil gallantry medals in the National Museum of Wales, Carausian coinage suggested the fabric of the coins was and Derek Noakes on the London Institution with particular recycled orichalcum (a zinc-rich brass from reused sestertii) reference to Robert Bingley, King’s Assay Master from 1798 which was not the norm for official Roman issues. to 1837, and the Royal Mint Lecture, in which Patrick Mackenzie reviewed the results of sorting through vast Let’s Hear it for Lead Dr Kevin Leahy quantities of current British coinage from circulation, Kevin Leahy, PAS Finds Advisor for metalworking gave an recording forgeries and unusual varieties. On saturday evening engaging and amusing paper on the use of lead from the late Graham Dyer spoke on Martin Coles Harman and the 1929 Bronze Age to the medieval period. He explained the trends of puffin coinage for Lundy Island. lead use and the types of objects made from lead in antiquity, On Sunday Henry Kim of the Ashmolean Museum spoke on from socketed axe moulds to jewellery, and from weights to medals of Oxford University and Keith Sugden of Manchester roofs. Museum on Roman contorniates, and finally Stewart Lyon gave the Royal Numismatic Society’s Howard Linecar Rewriting History: Styli, Literacy and the Metal Detector Memorial Lecture on the coinage of ninth century Dr Tim Pestell Northumbria, to mark the half centenary of his paper in BNJ Tim Pestell, Curator of Archaeology at Norwich Castle XXVIII. Museum gave a paper exploring examples of styli from Once again this proved a highly successful event, and it is Roman and early medieval contexts. He suggested that hoped that the same venue and an equally interesting literacy was more readily available to secular society and not programme will be arranged at the same time next year. just the preserve of clerical and monastic administration. Michael Anderson All That Glitters is not Gold: Base Metals and Display in the Late Iron Age Natasha Hutchison Natasha Hutchison, Museum’s Development Officer at Gressenhall presented a paper which examined the social A NEW ACQUISITION AT BIRMINGHAM meanings we may interpret from objects of the late Iron Age, MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY this focused on base metal objects as well as more glamorous objects made of precious metal. A unique collection of coins, minted at the time when Birmingham was literally the world’s money-making Medieval Lead Seal Matrices Andrew Rogerson machine, has been given to the city as a gift. For almost a Andrew Rogerson, Senior Landscape Archaeologist for century coins made by IMI jangled in pockets of people in Norfolk Archaeology gave a paper examining the rise of the scores of countries around the world, from Algeria and Angola use of lead seal matrices focusing predominantly on Norfolk to Zambia and Zimbabwe. Now the Birmingham-based finds recorded by the county’s museums. business has donated its collection, worth a “considerable five

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figure sum”, to the city’s Museum & Art Gallery. IMI IN SEARCH OF THE TUTBURY HOARD spokesman Graham Truscott said: “It’s an incredible collection, from the time when Birmingham supplied the A project is underway at the BM to locate the whereabouts of currency for almost half of the world. Some, like those for any coins of the Tutbury hoard of 1831. This is part of a larger Katanga and British East Africa, don’t even exist as names of archaeological and historical project run by the BM, Tutbury states anymore. Castle, Birmingham Archaeology and the Duchy of Lancaster, “It seemed wrong to keep such an interesting collection, which aims to bring together excavation and documentary which shows just how big a role Birmingham played in the evidence to produce a definitive history of the castle and its world’s financial system, hidden away. We decided the best wider landscape. home for it was the museum, where future generations will be The hoard coins in the BM, currently on show in gallery 68 able to see it”. Many of the coins are for countries that were amount to a mere 314, of what was potentially a find of coins part of the Empire and then the Commonwealth. But the in excess of three hundred thousand, making it Britain’s reputation of Birmingham-made money was so high that there largest coin hoard. Other parcels from the hoard are recorded are also coins for countries like Lithuania, Latvia and Iceland, in the Potteries Museum, Stoke and in the Royal Collection. If which had little to do with Britain. any reader knows of the whereabouts of any other coins which The collection covers the period from before the Great War to might have come from the hoard we would be pleased to hear the 1990s and includes pieces minted at Witton and King’s about them. The BM specimens are of the reigns of Edward I Norton. Some of the coins are very rare: for example the and II and come with tickets which read ‘Tutbury find’, collection has a Greek 50 lepta piece, which was worth just a ‘Tutbury’ or ‘River Dove 1831’, and come largely from the few pence when it was issued in 1921: now it is valued at more collection of Sir John Evans which was sold to J. P. Morgan than £5,000 because there are fewer than ten left anywhere in after the death of the former in 1908 and subsequently to the the world. The coins were sorted and valued by Birmingham museum in 1915. specialists Format Coins. David Vice, one of the firm’s If you have any information please contact either Richard or directors, said the donation was “a very generous gift from Gareth at [email protected] or IMI”. He added: “In historic terms this is a very important [email protected]. collection because it’s a complete history of the mint. Alternatively the postal address is The Department of Coins Birmingham has played an enormously big role in world coin and Medals, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London making – modern minting started here in the 1790s. It’s a WC1B 3DG. major part of the city’s history.” Cllr John Alden, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture said: “Donating this collection is a very generous and forward-looking move by A NEW CURATORIAL APPOINTMENT AT THE IMI. We’ll be able to show that Birmingham wasn’t just the BM workshop of the world, but also made the very money that paid for our goods”. This is almost certainly the last major The British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals is collection of Birmingham-made coins available. We’ve pleased to announce the appointment of Laura Phillips as already starting work on cataloguing the collection, and we development curator of the HSBC Money Gallery. Laura hope to be able to display some of the best examples in the graduated from Edinburgh University in 2002 with an MA in museum in the near future. History and History of Art and from the University of Manchester in 2004 with an MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies. Before joining the BM Laura worked at the Imperial David Symons War Museum North, Manchester where she was involved in the development and delivery of most of the public and schools programme and object handling. Of her new position Laura says, ‘I’m really interested in investigating those audiences which are, and can be, drawn to the collection displayed in the HSBC Money Gallery. I would like to further encourage visitors to have creative dialogues with the objects, and pursue their own personal routes of discovery and engagement with the displays. I’m inspired by the breadth of the collections of the Department of Coins and Medals, they really do have the potential to touch every visitor that walks into the gallery, no matter what their background might be.’

The donation (from left to right): Graham Truscott (IMI), David Vice (Format) and David Symons (BMAG)

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OBITUARIES INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

Roderick Alexander Fletcher, B. A. (Hons) died in Helsinki on BACCHUS UND SEINE WELT AUF ANTIKEN 14 November 2004 at the age of 61. He was a translator and GEMMEN former language teacher with numismatic interests. Ten days Staatliche Munzsammlung, Munich, 10 June 2005 – 28 before his death he gave his collection of British coins to the February 2006 National Museum in Helsinki. “In making this bequest, the donor wishes to express his gratitude for the many good things DIE RÖMER IN KLEINASIEN that Finland has given him over the years,” he wrote on the last Munzkabinett, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, until May page of its catalogue. 2006 It is not a large collection, consisting of barely 90 coins, but they form an interesting as well as instructive cross-section of the numismatic history of England, beginning with a silver unit of Epaticcus (c. 25–35) and ending with the 1950s. After a selection of medieval pennies, all the reigns from Henry VIII LECTURES, SEMINARS, to the present day are represented, mostly with shillings and smaller denominations. Fletcher had an eye for quality but he COLLOQUIA AND CONFERENCES could not afford to buy expensive coins. The collection does, however, include one very valuable item, a full set of the 8 February 2006 jubilee coinage of 1887 in a leather case. This had been given Secondo Colloquio Valori e disvalori simbolici delle monete: to him by his father, and apparently it had also been the ‘I 30 denari di Giuda’ original inspiration for his collecting. 7 Via Festa del Perdono, Milan Fletcher was born in Melbourne on 19 April 1943. After Speakers include Haim Gitler, Maria Caccamo Caltabiano, studying classical languages he worked many years as a Adriano Savio, Anna Pontani, Lucia Travaini, Andrea Terzi university teacher in Michigan and Germany before returning and Giulia Barone to Australia in the 1980s. Since 1993 he lived in Helsinki, For details please contact [email protected] having married a Finnish translator, Leena Vallisaari. He had an enthusiasm for music, and he translated numerous librettos 8 April 2006 and other texts for the Finnish National Opera and the opera Sceat Symposium, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Speakers festival at Savonlinna. include Ian Wood, Leslie Webster, Wybrand Op den Velde, Michael Metcalf, Adrian Lyons, Anna Gannon and Marion Tuukka Talvio Archibald For details please contact: Tony Abrahamson, 20 Belvedere It is with sadness that I report the recent death of Mrs. Freya Avenue, Alwoodley, Leeds LS17 8BW (tel. 0113 225 0680, Woolf, specialist in the Parthian series. A former member of Email: [email protected]). the Worthing and District Numismatic Society, she attended a number of B.A.N.S weekends with her late husband Noel, 21-25 August 2006 author of The Medallic Record of the Jacobite movement. XIVth International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, Freya also attended some of the gatherings of the 1745 Finland Association and will, I am sure, be much missed in both There is a session on monetary history, organised by Georges numismatic and Jacobite circles. Depeyrot entitled ‘Relations between the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds and Central Europe According to the Coin Michael Sharp Finds’

TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS LECTURE DIARY

Iran before Islam: Religion and Propaganda, AD 224-651 December British Museum, Gallery 69a, 29 June 2005 – 8 January 2006 20 RNS The Mints of Medieval Europe, Peter Spufford followed by Christmas party Buried Treasure: Finding our past The Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich: 25 July 2005 – January 13 January 2006 17 RNS Coins of Persis: bridging the gap between the Achaemenids and the Sasanians. Vesta Sarkosh Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia Curtis British Museum, Gallery 5, 9 September 2005 – 8 January 2006 24 BNS The Big Problem of Small Change. Thomas Sargent and Francois Velde Michaelangelo: Money and Medals British Museum, Gallery 69a, 12 January – 4 June 2006

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LECTURE DIARY (CONTINUED) AUCTIONS AND FAIRS February 7 BAMS Italian Renaissance Bronze Casting: The Written Unless stated otherwise all auctions are held at the addresses Record. Tru Helms listed. Dates may be subject to alteration.

21 RNS “Show and tell”, open to members to bring February something along for discussion with other 11 The Spring Argentum Auction in conjunction with The members in 10 minute slots. Contact the London Coin Fair. Holiday Inn, London Bloomsbury, Coram secretaries before the end of 2005 to sign up. Street, WC1. www.simmonsgallery.co.uk

28 BNS Some Experiments in Iron Age Coin Production. Philip de Jersey

March Baldwin’s: 14 BAMS Freedom and Constraint: the Designing of Official Royal Society of Arts, John Adam St, London. Medals Kevin Clancy Spink & Son: 21 RNS Coin use in the Ancient World Seminar. Jonathan 69 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 4ET. Williams and Andrew Meadows Croydon Coin Auctions: 28 BNS Chester, Meols and Irish Sea Trade in the Viking United Reformed Church Hall, Addiscombe Grove, Age. David Griffiths East Croydon.

Linda Monk Fairs: Jury’s Hotel, Great Russell St, London. CONTACTS: Dix Noonan Webb: British Art Medal Society (BAMS) The New Connaught Rooms, 61-65 Great Queen St, Mr Philip Attwood, Department of Coins and Medals, British London WC2 Museum, London WC1B 3DG, tel: 020 7323 8260. Unless otherwise stated, all meetings held at 5.30pm, Cutlers Hall, Bonham’s: Warwick Lane, London EC4. Montpelier Street, London, SW7 1HH

British Association of Numismatic Societies (BANS) Morton & Eden Ltd: Mr P. H. Mernick, c/o Bush, Boake, Allen Ltd, Blackhorse 45 Maddox Street, London W1S 2PE. Lane, London E17 5QP, tel: 020 8523 6531. Warwick & Warwick Ltd: British Numismatic Society (BNS) Chalon House, Scar Bank, Millers Road, Dr Elina Screen, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Warwick CV34 5DB. Street, Cambridge CB2 1RB, tel: 01223 332900. Fax: 01223 332923. E-mail: [email protected]. Membership Classical Numismatic Group: secretary, Lt Cdr Charles Farthing, c/o Warburg Institute, Hold electronic auctions on www.cngcoins.com Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB, tel: 01329 284 661. E-mail: [email protected] Unless otherwise stated all meetings held at 6.00pm at the Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1.

British Numismatic Trade Association (BNTA) BNTA British Numismatic Trade Association Rosemary Cooke, General Secretary, P.O. Box 2, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7WE, tel: 01797 229988; fax: 01797 229988; e-mail: [email protected]; website: www.bnta.net.

Oriental Numismatic Society (ONS) Mr Peter Smith, 9 Grandison Road, London SW11 6LS, tel: 020 7228 2826.

Royal Numismatic Society (RNS) Dr Vesta Curtis, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum, London WC1 3DG, tel: 020 7323 8272. Unless otherwise stated all meetings held at 5.30pm at the Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB. E-mail: [email protected].