URSULA KAMPMANN VISITS THE ANS

Parva ne Pereant – so the small may not perish! I cannot conceive of a better motto for a society that is exclusively devoted to preserving the smallest historical objects there are, to coins and other numismatic artifacts. The American Numismatic Society has taken this motto to heart and has been conducting research on numismatics and the history of economics for over 150 years.

In the ANS foyer, there are a number of show cases which often display newly acquired objects. At the moment, they show a part of Vladimir and Elvira Clain-Stefanelli’s archive as well as selected items from the Huntington Collection. CoinsWeekly also reported in detail about what happened to the Huntington Collection: the collection, which had been on permanent loan at the ANS nearly ever since its foundation, had been auctioned off by its owner, the Hispanic Society of America, due to financial difficulties. With the help of generous donors, however, the ANS succeeded in buying back a large part of the collection.

Speaking of which – the importance of sponsors simply cannot be stressed enough! Without their help the ANS could not achieve nearly as much as it does. Unlike many other museums and research institutes, the society is barely subsidised by the government. Wages, publications, projects and other various expenses have to be covered by third-party funds. Fortunately, the responsible curators have truly mastered this discipline. Most European museums would be amazed by the highly sophisticated strategies for addressing different target groups. Donations of important collections are nothing out of the ordinary. Currently, one of the show cases displays Alan Helms’ collection of African iron money which he gave away to the ANS in 2012.

Kenneth Sheedy, Damian Gore and Gil Davis are
registering the ANS coins for a corpus of early Athenian coins

Brutus - and the coins of the Roman Republic

U.S. Mint Die

ANS library

Even though today all publications held in the ANS library can be retrieved via the DONUM database, the old index card catalogue still remains an important tool. After all, since the society’s foundation new acquisitions have been catalogued and tagged here with key words by no less than 21 librarians.

The ANS has held its place among the most important numismatic associations worldwide for more than 150 years now. And chances are that it will remain there for at least another 150 years.

To read the complete article, see: Parva ne Pereant – A visit to the ANS (www.coinsweekly.com/en/News/4?&id=2573)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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