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History Of Numismatics-Was Petrarch The First Coin Collector?

I am learning so much. I am still reading the information in Wikepedia. I just wish I had the coin illustrated below. Wow!

A Roman denarius, a standardized silver coin.

Coin Collecting may have existed in ancient times. Caesar Augustus gave “coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money” as Saturnalia gifts.^[2]

Petrarch, who wrote in a letter that he was often approached by vinediggers with old coins asking him to buy or to identify the ruler, is credited as the first Renaissance collector. Petrarch presented a collection of Roman coins to Emperor Charles IV in 1355.

The first book on coins was De Asse et Partibus (1514) by Guillaume Budé.^[3]. During the early Renaissance ancient coins were collected by European royalty and nobility. Collectors of coins were Pope Boniface VIII, Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV of France, Ferdinand I, Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg who started the Berlin coin cabinet and Henry IV of France to name a few. Numismatics is called the “Hobby of Kings”, due to its most esteemed founders.

Professional societies organized in the 19th century. The Royal Numismatic Society was founded in 1836 and immediately begin publishing the journal that became the Numismatic Chronicle. The American Numismatic Society was founded in 1858 and began publishing the American Journal of Numismatics in 1866.

In 1931 the British Academy launched the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum publishing collections of Ancient Greek coinage. The first volume of Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles was published in 1958.

In the 20th century as well the coins were seen more as archaeological objects. After World War II in Germany a project, Fundmünzen der Antike (Coin finds of the Classical Period) was launched, to register every coin found within Germany. This idea found successors in many countries.

In the United States, the US mint established a coin Cabinet in 1838 when chief coiner Adam Eckfeldt donated his personal collection.^[4] William E. Du Bois’ Pledges of History… (1846) describes the cabinet.

C. Wyllys Betts’ American colonial history illustrated by contemporary medals (1894) set the groundwork for the study of American historical medals.

Tags: history of coin collecting