LOOSE CHANGE: OCTOBER 18, 2026

High-resolution images of the obverse and reverse of most coins are now widely available, either online or in printed catalogues. Images of the edges of the coins, in contrast, are either absent or show only a limited section.

For coins with a grained or plain edge, this is of little consequence. But where an edge inscription is present, the lack of photographs showing the entire circumference in a single view is a major obstacle to the researcher and collector.

This post reviews and compares currently available techniques for coin edge imaging at minimal cost.

Before the advent of digital photography, the solution was to roll the edge of the coin in a length of plasticine, producing a mirror-image of the inscription. This could then be cast in plaster to produce a right-reading model.

This appears to be the technique used by Linecar and Stone in English Proof and Pattern Crown-Size Pieces 1658–1960 (London: Spink & Son, 1968) to reproduce the edges of the Petition and Reddite crowns (see next page). This gives a satisfactory result in the case of the four-word inscription on the Reddite crown, but the 34 words arranged in two lines on the Petition crown are scarcely legible.

To read the complete article, see:
The forgotten die: experiments in coin edge imaging (https://britnumsoc.blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/the-forgotten-die-experiments-in-coin-edge-imaging-1.pdf)

Most numismatists would consider a "Washington Medal" as being one of several awarded to George Washington, or one of the many that depict the father of our country. However, America's first president was not the only Washington to receive a gold medal, and it is a much lesser-known fact that one was presented to Martha Washington by the city of Williamsburg towards the end of the Revolution. Join Scott Miller (ANS Fellow) as he traces the fascinating history of this medal from its presentation to Martha Washington, its travels to South America and Simón Bolívar, and its ultimate return to the United States.

To watch the complete video, see:
The Other Washington Gold Medal. LT276 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyKvA3cKBFk)

The antidote for blithely accepting that mankind was predestined to stream podcasts on Netflix is to trace the scientific epiphanies that happened first. Exploring the Reason and Revolution auction at Sotheby's provides us with a chance to revel in the vibrancy of history as it reverberates in the present. Engaging directly with first editions from giants like Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei amplifies their inestimable influence on those who later stood on their shoulders.

To hold in one's hands these landmark works in their original form is to be flung back through time into an advanced society being born. It collapses centuries of distance between the moment of discovery and the moment at hand, making concrete and un-ignorable the fact that these were indeed real people who unlocked mindblowing breakthroughs at a hinge point for humanity. The more time spent lingering on their crucial contributions, the harder it is to avoid seeing their fingerprints on every aspect of How We Live Now.

Let's examine a typical day in the third decade of the 21st century: Running errands requires the use of Google Maps to plan a route. In the split-second before the app spews out immaculate directions, we should probably thank Nicolaus Copernicus.

In what would be an epochal 1543 text, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium—or On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres—Copernicus unveiled his heliocentric theory, explaining that Earth is not the stationary center of the universe but rather a planet that rotates on its axis while orbiting the sun. This was more than a reset for our ideas about outer space. It gave scientists a radically different way to think about Earth itself—not as a main stage on which the grand cosmic ballet plays out, but as just one twirling dancer among many.

That paradigm shift opened the door to a new era of increasingly precise calculations about where Earth is at any given moment, how it moves, and where other objects in the solar system should be. Over the centuries that followed, those calculations became the foundation for orbital mechanics, eventually allowing NASA to send rockets and satellites into space—and for us to use those satellites to find our way around Earth.

To read the complete article, see:
How Four Centuries-Old Books Changed Our World (https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/editorial-how-four-centuries-old-books-changed-our-world)

In 1790, the London bookseller Thomas Payne sold a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the earliest printed book, to George John, 2nd Earl Spencer. He charged him £370 – an enormous sum at the time, roughly equivalent to £878,000 today – as part of a package deal which included two other early theological works. As part of the deal, Payne had the old book rebound in sumptuous midnight blue goatskin. In the process, signs of earlier provenance (ownership annotations, stamps or other marks which might have revealed the Bible's history) were carefully removed.

Nearly 230 years later, multispectral imaging (a process which captures multiple images across different wavelengths, including ultraviolet and infrared) has allowed historians to recover those lost inscriptions. My research has revealed that the Bible had belonged to the Augustinian friars of Colmar in northeastern France – a community whose library was being dismantled during the French revolution.

This discovery forms part of the research for my new book, Portrait of an Obsession: How England's Greatest Private Library was Built from the Ruins of Europe's Monasteries. It offers a window onto how Britain's wealthiest collectors acquired rare books as Europe's monasteries were being dissolved, looted and destroyed. Priceless intellectual heritage was erased almost overnight.

English booksellers and book collectors used agents on the ground in France, Germany and Italy to buy books from threatened libraries, coerce their owners into sale, or, if everything else failed, simply steal the desired items. They did so secure in the knowledge that the homes of these books would soon be broken up anyhow.

The moment popularised the term "bibliomania", as some of the richest men and women in England competed against each other to pay eye-watering prices for Europe's oldest and rarest books.

To read the complete article, see:
When Europe's monastic libraries were looted, Britain's richest book collectors went hunting (https://theconversation.com/when-europes-monastic-libraries-were-looted-britains-richest-book-collectors-went-hunting-290690)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web