AN INTERVIEW WITH ANA MONEY MUSEUM CURATOR DOUGLAS MUDD

As the son of an American diplomat, you spent your early years moving from country to country. How did you get involved with numismatics?

Douglas Mudd: My father was a collector of Spanish Colonial and ancient coins – so I was always exposed to coins from a very early age. By the time I was ten, when we were in Bolivia, I would accompany my dad as he visited the various coin dealers that he knew – that was when I acquired my first coin, a Spanish quartillo. Later, when we lived in Syria, I collected a few ancient Roman coins and contemporary Syrian, Egyptian and Lebanese coins.

The National Numismatic Collection contains some of the rarest numismatic pieces in existence. You served as the Collection Manager for the National Numismatic Collection for over 14 years, what was that experience like?

DM: It was fantastic – I was really spoiled by the number and quality of the objects in the collection. From the DuPont/Michaelovich collection of Russian coins and medals to the amazing Chase Manhattan collection and the US Mint cabinet, the National Numismatic collection is just full of rare and historically invaluable items – each of which was waiting for its story to be told! There was some frustration also – it was very difficult to get exhibits done since each idea (no matter how small) had to go through a lengthy review and approval process and then had to wait for the availability of a designer and a fabricator from the exhibits department. The really frustrating part was not having the time to really get to research the collection – I was able to do a little at a time, and being the photographer (another hat I wore while working at NNC), I did get to work with a large part of the collection over the years (over 8,000 slides alone!).

At the Smithsonian, you were responsible for the care, storage and security of 1.6 million items in the numismatic collection. What kind of planning goes into maintaining the integrity of the rarest numismatic items in existence?

DM: Quite a bit! The planning ranges from how to categorize and organize the objects to how to store them and complete periodic checks. With 128 coin cabinets, each with 80 drawers capable of holding up to 80 dollar-size coins – not to mention the storage for the paper money collection (over 2000 linear feet of shelving!), there is a lot to do just to keep track of everything. Some areas are easy to organize, based on how other numismatic museums and collectors organize their collections – others are not so easy – especially items like medals, where there is no standard way to organize all medals.

In 2004, you joined the staff of the American Numismatic Association as the curator of the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum. What was making the move to a considerably smaller museum like?

DM: There is definitely a major difference when moving from a museum like the Smithsonian Institution with thousands of employees to a small museum like the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum, but not as big as you might suppose. Even in large museums, most departments are relatively small and often work fairly independently. The big difference is that at a small museum you will be doing multiple tasks and have fewer resources – conversely, you will not have to go through as many layers of bureaucracy to get things done! At the ANA we can get a single case exhibit done in a week from start to finish – at the Smithsonian the same case might take six months…

To read the complete article, see: Interview with Douglas Mudd, Curator of the ANA Money Museum (news.coinupdate.com/interview-with-douglas-mudd
-curator-of-the-ana-money-museum-0688/)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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