"According to Thierry Sarmant (Sarmant 2000, p. 70, note 5), the use of the word "numismatics" would be attested as an adjective since 1579 (Le Pois 1579, p. 35 v.), Then the Dictionnaire de l’Académie recorded the substantive in 1803. The oldest occurrence of the substantive adjective that Sarmant has found is in the sentence "You oblige me to give me news about numismatics, being in a distant country where we hear nothing said", Found in a letter from Father Favart to the capitoul Du Vau (Bibl. Nat. De Fr., Manuscrits, fr. 15186, fol. 87, Reims, June 23, 1732).

In fact the first known occurrence of "numismatics" - in Greek - is even older, since it dates back to 1565, in Belgium (Lampson 1565, p. 30; Lampson 1949, p. 74: "It is therefore Lambert Lombard that the Belgians owe, in addition to these advances of which I spoke in the art of painting and of which he said himself partly indebted to these ancient currencies, this taste so estimable of numismatics (in Greek), word which does not seems to me not too badly suited to this kind of knowledge."

I thank François de Callataÿ for providing me with a pre-print version of his forthcoming study)."