BOB LEONARD'S NUMISMATIC MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE

Like Numismatourist (TM) Dr. Howard M. Berlin, I like to see coin exhibits when traveling. On a Mediterranean cruise with Viking last month, I visited museums in Naples, Heraklion, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Nicosia, Rhodes, Delos, and Delphi, but regrettably missed meeting the curator of the Vatican Numismatic Cabinet (Medagliere) because of a bad flight connection.

Museo Archaeologico Nazionale di Napoli
The Museo Archaeologico Nazionale di Napoli has a coins and medals exhibit on the first floor, but it was closed at the time of my visit. However, I bought a copy of their guide, la collezione numismatica per una storia monetaris del mezzogiorno, in the museum shop. This is a 134-p. soft cover book, with some color illustrations, giving the history of Italian money from the ancient Greeks to the Kingdom of Naples, with chapters written by experts in each area (Italian).

Heraklion Archaeological Museum
The Heraklion Archaeological Museum has some possible precoinage money, Cypriot copper oxhide ingots, but of course no coins because it houses the material recovered from Knossos.

Israel Antiquities Authority
In Jerusalem I kept an appointment with old friend Dr. Donald Ariel, Head, Coin Department, National Treasures, Israel Antiquities Authority. They moved a few years ago from the Rockefeller Museum (near the Damascus Gate), and he showed me their new temperature- and humidity-controlled walk-in safe. They keep all the coins excavated by permit in Israel, about 265,000 at present. The coins are stored in trays (old collection, plus some recent finds) or in paper envelopes in plastic boxes, except for a couple of massive unseparated hoards of copper coins. I asked Donald if they have had any problems with corrosion with this system, and he said generally not, showing me about eight "bad" coins that required further treatment; apparently the low humidity is the key.

This is NOT an exhibit, and I was given permission because I wanted to see some coins referenced in a paper I had just submitted for a publication coordinated by the IAA. (Donald also mentioned that a paper I published in 1997 is going to be cited in another paper in 2017, very gratifying.)

The IAA offices are on the campus of the Israel Museum, which is a must for anyone visiting Jerusalem, though off the beaten path. At the time of my visit they had a temporary exhibit of 75 Roman gold coins from the Victor Adda Collection, beautifully displayed in a rotunda. These don't photograph well, but the museum provided two leaflets, Faces of Power and Coins in the Exhibition, identifying every coin and putting them in context. The Israel Museum also includes many choice examples of ancient Jewish coins, as you would expect, but also TWO superb examples of the Colosseum sestertius of Titus, in different rooms.

Old Jaffa Museum of Antiquities
In Jaffa I visited the Old Jaffa Museum of Antiquities, which houses finds collected by municipal archaeologist Dr. Jacob Kaplan. Among many artifacts, it has a case of coins from ancient times to the Crusades, including a hoard of 851 Hasmonean leptons of Alexander Jannaeus--each with a number affixed to the back!

Cyprus Museum
The Cyprus Museum in Nicosia (Lefkosia) houses many outstanding antiquities, including a fine display of the coins of the ancient Cypriot kingdoms, shown above a mirror so that the reverses can be seen, and with pictures of coins to fill in those missing from the collection. These are too small to photograph well, but the museum also houses finds from the Polish excavations at Paphos, 1965-2015.

Among objects recovered were open limestone molds and planchets from the Ptolemaic mint at Paphos. These bronze coins were struck on cast planchets, like ancient Jewish bronze coins; a hole was drilled to center a compass, then the circular mold scraped out around that and sprues and runners cut in. A number of these molds are shown in the exhibit; in some of the openings planchets have been inserted, showing either the boss from the centration hole or the smooth upper side, while in others struck coins have been inserted for exhibit purposes. Coins from the Roman period are also displayed.

Leventis Municipal Museum
Nicosia has another excellent museum, the private Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia. Its coin exhibits pick up where the Cyprus Museum leaves off, covering the Byzantine and Frankish periods. One that I found particularly interesting was a gold hyperpyron of Isaac II Angelus, 1185-1195, made into a jewel.

While the museums in Rhodes (Archaeological Museum), Delos, and Delphi hold many wonderful things, there is nothing numismatic in them.

My advice: plan ahead when traveling, and let the local guides know that you are interested in coins.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles on the Victor Adda Collection, see:
EXHIBIT: THE VICTOR ADDA COLLECTION (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n26a21.html)
MORE ON THE VICTOR ADDA COLLECTION (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n29a24.html)

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