2.0_CCNB_News49.qxp:Layout 1 7/4/10 20:41 Page 1 Newsletter No. 49 April 2010 TChe NCewsNletterB of the Coordinating Committee for Numismatics in Britain The CCNB Newsletter is supported by the British Museum, CONTENTS the Royal Numismatic Society and the British Numismatic FOCUS ON THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD Society. The Newsletter appears triannually, and is received by those members of the RNS and BNS resident in the United • ‘Money: The Value of the Past’: A New Gallery at the Kingdom, and by others with an interest in numismatics and Ashmolean Museum related fields. • New Coin and Artefact Identification Service at the Ashmolean Museum Contributions and information will be gratefully received. • ‘The Value of the Past’: The Ashmolean’s new Money Gallery, Items for the next issue should be sent to a review Megan Gooch or Richard Kelleher, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum, NEWS Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, tel: 020 7323 8288 • The Third International Symposium in Early Medieval Coinage fax: 020 7323 8171, e-mail: [email protected] or • A unique gold coin commemorating the assassination of [email protected]. Julius Caesar • New appointments in London and Paris Auction and fair details for inclusion in the next edition should be sent to Peter Preston-Morley at [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 Richard Kelleher at the above address, or alternatively e-mail NEW BOOKS him at [email protected]. DIARY The long North and South walls carry two broad themes – the North FOCUS ON RENOVATIONS AT THE wall showcases World cultures through the coinages they produced and also doubles to reflect the curatorial areas represented in the ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD Heberden Coin Room. These displays are augmented by graphic elements such as enlarged pictures of coins and images of prints, ‘MONEY: THE VALUE OF THE PAST’: architecture, icons and sculpture. The South wall provides an overview of ‘Money’ through thematic displays which emphasise A NEW GALLERY AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM physical, cultural and historical aspects of Money, articulated through a selection of objects and graphic panels. The Ashmolean Museum reopened to the public on 7 November The central aisle has three important focal sections which 2009 after a £61m redevelopment, which included 38 new include displays created for Key Stage II learning objectives, galleries, conceptualised and designed to a display strategy concentrating on the Greeks, the Romans in Britain, the Anglo- ‘Crossing Cultures Crossing Time’. It was officially opened by Saxons, the Tudors and the Victorians. The Victorians are shown HM Queen on 2 December. The numismatic collections of the through a selection of medals, rather than coins, thus bringing a Heberden Coin Room of the museum are chiefly displayed in the significant part of the Coin Room’s non-monetary collection into new ‘Money’ gallery and also in twenty-five other galleries, the Gallery’s ambit. There are three cases, which contain ‘vista where they compliment other objects from the wider Ashmolean objects’, significant in their regional as well as collective collection. Additionally, coins feature prominently in graphic historical importance, accentuated by large graphics that act as a elements that support displays across the entire museum. The ‘visual magnet’ for visitors. These are the Oxford Crown of ‘Money’ gallery is composed of object displays and hands-on Charles I, the Crondall hoard of the earliest Anglo-Saxon gold interactive components, supported by extensive graphic elements. coins and the Chalgrove hoard, in which was found the second Structurally, the gallery is divided into three main areas viz. the known specimen of a radiate of Domitianus, the Gallic usurper. North and South Walls and a central aisle of free-standing cases. This last case is surrounded by other displays of ‘local money’, There is space for temporary exhibitions on the West wall. including the Didcot hoard of Roman aurei. It also includes a section dedicated to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. 2.0_CCNB_News49.qxp:Layout 1 7/4/10 20:41 Page 2 The interactive elements offer educational and cultural popular ‘shove ha’penny’ board. A small case at this end focuses information through tactile and visual activities such as ‘Design on the Charles I Oxford crown, highlighting the Oxford spires on Your Own Coin’ and ‘Magnify Me’. There is also an enlarged the obverse. A wall case and two panels at the far end are reserved model of the Oxford Crown and an electronic map that takes the for special, temporary displays, and currently house a thoughtful viewer through Time and Space using coin-like counters. The display, ‘Rule Britannia,’ on the presentation of Britannia on gallery also has graphic panels which supplement the temporary British Money. exhibition, the ‘Money’ wall and the entrance to the gallery. At the entrance, a board titled ‘What’s it Worth?’ gives an indication of prices through ages using objects on display and also doubles as a chronological guide to the gallery. Shailendra Bandhare NEW COIN AND ARTEFACT IDENTIFICATION SERVICE AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM Following the re-opening of the Ashmolean Museum, the Heberden Coin Room and Department of Antiquities are holding a joint identification service in the Museum on the first Wednesday of every month (12-4pm). Alongside Ashmolean Museum staff, the PAS’s Finds Liaison Officer for West Berkshire and Oxfordshire, Anni Byard, is also present to record The gallery has a strong interpretative framework and layout with local finds for the Scheme’s online database. The aim of the ID excellent graphics and interactives, and the collections are service is to identify all material brought in. We hope to identify beautifully lit and displayed. Inclusion of ‘roaming’ magnifying as many finds as possible during the ID service sessions, but any glasses and well-spaced seating helps to keep visitors in the objects requiring further work by specialist curators will be gallery, and it is clearly a popular exhibit. The messages photographed and measured for subsequent assessment. expressed also continue well into the surrounding galleries: the Unfortunately, we cannot take material in nor provide valuations. floor’s central orientation gallery ‘Exploring the Past,’ the For further information please see adjacent gallery on ‘Reading and Writing’ and the nearby www.ashmolean.org/services/identification/ , or contact exploration of ‘The Human Image’ where a tetradrachm of Dr. John Naylor at [email protected] for coinage, Alexander the Great is used to look at royal portraiture. Coins or Dr. Alison Roberts at [email protected] for also feature throughout many other galleries in the new displays other archaeological objects. as illustrative or chronological supporting material. The Money Gallery shows the impressive range of the John Naylor Ashmolean’s numismatic collections and their excellent integration with other parts of the collection. But, it also highlights the collections’ weaknesses, including no modern ‘THE VALUE OF THE PAST’: THE ASHMOLEAN’S plastic ‘money’ and very few alternative forms of currency despite the ‘world money’ case. The collections of the Pitt Rivers NEW MONEY GALLERY, A REVIEW Museum are referenced but it would have been interesting to see On a cold, rainy, half term Tuesday, it is pleasing to see the money some of these collections on loan and integrated across the gallery in the newly refurbished Ashmolean bustling with themed cases, or perhaps given a ‘window’ of their own. activity. Located on the lower-ground floor, the new money The gallery is nonetheless eye-catching and informative, gallery is at the very heart of the Ashmolean’s re-styled building, exemplary of the new Ashmolean as a whole, which indeed works as well as the new interpretative framework, ‘Crossing Cultures, hard and successfully to show visitors ‘the value of the past.’ Crossing Time.’ The gallery, entitled ‘Money: the value of the past,” also picks Katy Barrett up on this house interpretative theme in its own structure. One side of the gallery features ‘windows’ on different cultures: Ancient Greece, and Rome, China, India, Byzantium, Islam, Medieval, and Renaissance Europe, and Britain; while the opposite wall develops a number of themes across time: ‘World NEWS money,’ coining, printing, and using money, ‘more than money,’ and the relationship of money to trade and power. Each of these features a range of currency types as well as related images and THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM IN artefacts. The gallery develops the display rationale established EARLY MEDIEVAL COINAGE by the Money Gallery of the British Museum, but follows the strengths of the Ashmolean’s collections. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Saturday, March 20th, 2010 Down the centre of the gallery, a number of cases focus on British and Oxford themes, reinforcing the Ashmolean’s dual role The third symposium in the current biennial series returned to the as a local and national museum. One island looks at ‘local Fitzwilliam Museum in early spring, clearly a welcome return in money’ with reference to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and view of the very healthy attendance and lively debate. The Friday Treasure Act and a number of locally discovered hoards, evening social gathering and the informal discussions in the including Civil War money, the Chalgrove hoard and its famous programme breaks are an important part of the symposium in Domitianus coin, and the Didcot hoard on loan from the British forging new relationships and refreshing old ones. The Museum. Two other islands focus on coins of key historical eras, programme included contributions from some of the younger particularly in relation to Britain: Greek gods and heroes, Roman generation of early medieval students now bringing stimulating Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, Tudors, and Victorians.