Contextual Numismatics?
After reading a recent post by Nathan Elkins on the American Numismatic Society discussion list, I had serious concerns that I might be suffering from a severe case of delusion or dementia. Mr. Elkins proposes to orchestrate a panel of archaeologists to discuss “Contextual Numismatics” at the 2009 AIA meeting.
Granted, I have only been a professional numismatist for 41 years, but I rather thought that I might have heard most of the terminology used in the field. So, I hopped over to that repository of all human knowledge, Google, and searched for the term—hoping to bring myself up to speed. Ouch, not a single hit.
Just to make sure my browser was working, I searched for something everyone has heard of “Ilkhanid Coins”. Bingo, 648 links. Ok, one more “Russian wire money”, 489 more links. Contextual Numismatics? — Zip. This, I thought, ought to be a lively discussion panel. Perhaps I was unfair to search a general resource for an academic term. So, back to the browser I went and pulled up the American Numismatic Society web site. Searching for “contextual numismatics” I found zero documents. Finally, I tried the Archaeological Institute of America web site: “Your search yielded 0 results.”
The term is apparently unknown to anyone but Mr. Elkins. It should be interesting to see how the discussion goes when the subject is undefined and unknown. (more…)

This world-class collection of Ancient and World coins will be auctioned by
Because of the intense worldwide interest in this collection, we strongly suggest you make your hotel arrangements and bidding arrangements as soon as possible.
The
Will Robins, of Westchester County, N.Y., is just 16, but has been exhibiting, writing and lecturing about coins for about four years. He’s won numerous awards and received recognition from the Numismatic Association.















