HEBERDEN COIN ROOM 100TH ANNIVERSARY

Gil Parsons writes:

 

Since its public opening on 24 October 1922, the Ashmolean Museum's Heberden Coin Room has grown to become one of the world's leading coin cabinets. The original collection of 60,000 coins and medals has expanded significantly and the coin room now houses some 300,000 items, including paper money, tokens, jettons and commemorative art medals.

Generous donations have played a crucial role in supporting the work of the Heberden Coin Room over the years: they have underpinned the growth of the collections and their display and digitisation, as well as ambitious research projects, visiting scholar programmes and public events.

To celebrate the centenary, we're taking a closer look at six recent gifts that are helping to bring the world of numismatics to life for students, scholars and members of the public around the globe.

Did you know? The opening of the coin room was the culmination of a forty-year campaign, finally enabled by a bequest of £1,000 from Charles Heberden, Principal of Brasenose College. He had left the money for any University purpose and so had no idea that he was helping to found a coin room!

Revealing new details about life in the Late Iron Age

An exquisite collection of more than 1,000 coins was donated to the Ashmolean Museum earlier this year by collector and scholar Dr John Talbot, under the Arts Council's Cultural Gifts Scheme. The collection contains ornately designed gold and silver coins minted by the Iceni, an Iron Age community that inhabited present-day East Anglia — perhaps best known for their famous ‘queen' Boadicea.

The coins preserve the earliest writing by the Iceni and bear captivating and intricate imagery depicting a wide range of motifs, from wolves and prancing horses to spiky-haired boars and hidden faces. These speak of many key aspects of Iron Age life: art and iconography; tribal identities; and the changing nature of kingship.

 

A sliver unit from c. 30BC. The head on the obverse has locks of hair and ornate bands across the forehead. When the coin is turned, the lock of hair becomes a second eye, revealing a hidden face. On the reverse, a prancing horse is shown with ‘sun' motifs © Ian R Cartwright, Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University

Dr Talbot's donation will have a major impact on the Ashmolean's Iron Age coin collection. It includes every known type of Icenian coin (in many cases the finest known example) and will nearly double the number of so-called ‘Celtic' coins held by the museum. With much information still to be extracted, it promises to be an extraordinary new resource for those interested in Late Iron Age Britain and the culture of the Iceni.

Acquiring a national treasure

Towards the end of 2021 the Heberden Coin Room acquired a remarkable coronation medal made for the accession of nine-year-old Edward VI, following the death of his father King Henry VIII in 1547. It was engraved by Henry Basse, chief engraver at the Tower Mint, and features an intricate portrait of Edward in armour with insignia. Text highlighting Edward's temporal and spiritual powers and his young age appears in Latin, and again in Hebrew and Greek on the reverse.

 

‘Coronation Medal' of Edward VI (1547–53), 1547, Tower Mint, London, with dies by Henry Basse. Silver, struck, 6.5cm. Ashmolean Museum (HCR95030) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The quality of the medal indicates that it was part of the original production, struck in silver at the Tower of London for the occasion of the ceremony, and not one of the many later re-strikes or re-casts. The same can only be said for one other specimen — now in St Petersburg — and so in this sense the museum has undoubtedly been able to acquire a national treasure.

This fantastic acquisition was made possible through the support of the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Art Fund, the generosity of Richard and Gabrielle Falkiner and an anonymous donation in the memory of Professor D M Metcalf.

Sharing the joy of Roman provincial coinage

The Ashmolean Museum's Roman Provincial Coinage (RPC) project is one of the most important research projects in numismatics, generating invaluable information about how the Roman Empire established power and governed — and how the provinces responded. RPC online currently features more than 400,000 coins from 70,000 types, and draws in several million views each year, proving its impact beyond academia.

To help the project achieve even more the Ashmolean launched a fundraising appeal earlier this year, so far raising over £30,000 to underpin its ambitious work and enable it to share the joy of Roman provincial coins with an even wider audience.

To read the complete article, see:
Celebrating the centenary of the Heberden Coin Room (https://oxfordgiving.medium.com/celebrating-the-centenary-of-the-heberden-coin-room-736a01a20355)

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