Ancient Coins

Numismatics (ancient Greek: νομισματική) is the scientific study of money and its history in all its varied forms. While numismatists are often characterized as studying coins, the discipline also includes the study of banknotes, stock certificates, medals, medallions, and token coins (also referred to as Exonumia).

Monies studied by numismatists

Checks, Notaphily (the collection of paper money or banknotes) scripophily (the collection of stocks and bonds), and credit cards are also subjects of numismatistic interest. Early money used by primitive people is referred to as "Odd and Curious", but the use of other goods in barter exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating currency (e.g. prison cigarettes). For instance, the Kirghiz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change in lambskins.^[1] The lambskins may be a suitable for numismatic study, the horse is not.

Economic and historical studies of money's use and development are separate to the numismatists' study of money's physical embodiment (although the fields are related; economic theories of money's origin depend upon numismatics, for example).

History

Numismatics is an ancient discipline, reaching as far back as Julius Caesar who is often credited with writing the first book on numismatics. Numismatics can include the study of many different aspects relating to coins, including history, geography, economics, metallurgy, usage, and manufacturing processes.

Numismatists

Numismatists are sometimes differentiated from coin collectors inasmuch as the latter chiefly derive pleasure from the simple ownership of monetary devices, whereas the former are more concerned with acquiring knowledge about monetary devices and systems. In fact, many numismatists are also collectors and vice-versa. Walter Breen is a well-known example of a noted numismatist who was not an avid collector, while King Farouk I of Egypt was an avid collector who had very little interest in numismatics. Harry Bass by comparison was a noted collector who was also a numismatist.

Numismatists today often publish their research on the Internet. The best known example of this is Scott Balson, who has spent thirty years researching early South African numismatic history. His research has conclusively shown that South Africa's first widely circulating currency was a trade token, issued by Strachan and company in 1874 in East Griqualand. See link below.

Numismatists frequently research the production and use of money in historical contexts using mint or other records in order to determine the relative rarity of the coins they study. Varieties, mint-made errors, the results of progressive die wear, mintage figures and even the socio-political context of coin mintings are also matters of interest. In sum, there is very little about money that is not a valid numismatic field of study.

Many professional numismatists authenticate or grade coins for commercial purposes. The buying and selling of coin collections by numismatists who are professional dealers advances the study of money, and expert numismatists are consulted by historians, museum curators, and archaeologists.

Market value of rare coins

The idea of using numismatic material as an investment vehicle has become more popular over the last several decades. When the public took notice of the ultra-rare U.S. coins fetching tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars at auctions, an investment hype ensued. The most notable era of coin-price inflation was around 1989. Rare U.S. coins were seen as a way to diversify assets in the wake of the stock market crash of 1987.

Rare dates of some series of U.S. coins doubled, tripled, or even more in a short time. "Investment-grade" coins became the object of obsession. Certified and graded coins were born. PCGS was established in 1986 as a "first-generation" third-party grading company, which allowed coins to be guaranteed authentic, deterring counterfeits. Coins could now have an established grade which facilitated easy sight-unseen comparison, making the coin market more liquid. It is interesting to note that during the height of the coin market, PCGS was so inundated with grading submissions, that some coins (submitted on the Economy level) experienced an 11-month turnaround time. That bull market in coins soon collapsed and coin prices have dropped sharply from their peak.

Today, the lion's share of the market for third party grading is largely an even division between the two top services - NGC and PCGS. Beneath that is a second tier of grading companies without the strength of reputation or market value of the big two, but that are still considered ethical and competent, if not quite as precise. There is also a third layer below that of companies whose grading is considered much less reliable by the market. Those companies are generally avoided by knowledgeable collectors.

The coin market is generally divided into three major categories in the U.S.

• Classic U.S. Coins
• Modern U.S. Coins
• World and Ancient Coins

There is some debate about the exact distinction between classic and modern coinage, but some define classics as coins ranging from 1792 until 1964. As time moves forward the perception of what constitutes "modern" is certain to change.

Paper money, another significant area of collecting (although not as popular as coins), is only now being introduced to the major third party grading companies through PMG, a sister company of NGC and the paper money authentication and grading section of Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). This may lead to some shake-up in the pricing and collectability of notes as the market adjusts.

See also

• Coin collecting
• Coin grading
• Exonumia

External links

• Early South African coinage and bank notes
• American Numismatic Association
• Royal Numismatic Society of Britain
• www.harrybassfoundation.org
• What is a coin Information and history of the currencies
• Numismatic Articles
• Numispedia Encyclopedia

Notes

1. ^  See Glyn Davies' monetary timeline here, taken from his 1996 book with Roy Davies, A Comparative Chronology of Money: Monetary History from Ancient Times to the Present Day, University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-1351-5. The timeline reports horses and sheep as the principle monetary units until circa 1910.