The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 1, January 4, 2004, Article 23

ANCIENT COINS FOR EDUCATION PROJECT

The Ancient Coins for Education project has been helping
grade school students learn about numismatics through
ancient coins. The group supplies uncleaned Roman
coins for the students to clean, identify and keep. There are
links to several newspaper articles about the project on the
project's web site at
http://www.bitsofhistory.com/ace/press.html

One of the most recent articles is about a school in a suburb
of Pittsburgh.

"Pupils at St. Louise de Marillac School in Upper St. Clair
received their coins about four weeks ago. They took them
home for their Thanksgiving holiday to continue the cleaning
and identification process. They brought them back to school
last week to report on their progress.

Some still looked like crusty blobs. One boy reported that he
could see a snake on a portion of the little coin, and another
said he could see legs on one side of his.

"Be patient and don't give up," teacher Zee Ann Poerio told
her pupils.

Mia Gilardi, of South Fayette, triumphantly displayed her coin,
with images visible on both sides. With the help of her parents,
teacher, and a Web site, the coin has been identified. It's a
bronze coin bearing the image of a Roman Ruler Valentinian I.
The coin was struck in 365 A.D.

"Mia is the first person in the class to clean her coin," Poerio
said. "She is the youngest person ever to clean and identify a
coin in the ACE program. Sometimes you have to look at
hundreds of coins" on Web sites to identify a coin."

"Poerio started the program last year at St. Louise, and then
held a local workshop in May. About 40 local teachers
attended the workshop, which was sponsored in part by the
Pennsylvania Classical Association, Dickinson College
Department of Classics and the National Committee for Latin
and Greek.

Proponents of teaching Latin and Greek say elementary pupils
who study the languages show improved scores on standardized
tests, Poerio said. They also say that studying Latin improves
the English vocabulary and grammar of students and helps them
learn other languages, especially French and Spanish, which
have Latin roots."

Many thanks to Sam Deep and Dick Gaetano for pointing out
the article. Since this teacher is in our area, we will contact her
to offer assistance and invite her pupils to the Coins4Kids events
we run at local coin shows. I encourage other E-Sylum readers
interested in promoting the hobby to take a look at the project
web site (http://www.bitsofhistory.com/ace/) and consider
helping or sponsoring a class in your own region. Here's a link
to the full article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03344/249328.stm

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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