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Books > Arts & Architecture > Antiques & collectables > Coins, banknotes, medals, seals, numismatics
This comprehensive catalogue, which has been worked on by the
authors over several years, covers all known Sikh Copper, Silver
and Gold Mohurs, including much unpublished material, with
photographs of each; coins of the Cis-Sutlej States, with
photographs of all Sikh states (Patiala, Nabha, Khaital) plus
additional details on MalerKotla; medals issued to Sikhs from the
1840s to 1947; and Sikh Temple Tokens, Medallions and Commemorative
Coins issued since the 1800s. It is the most up-to-date and
authoritative book on the subject, and an essential addition to the
library of any collector interested in this fascinating area of
coinage.
The Watlington Hoard was discovered in southern Oxfordshire in 2015
by a metal-detectorist, and acquired by the Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford in 2017. A nationally-important find of coinage and
metalwork, and the first major Viking-Age hoard from the county, it
dates from the late 870s, a fundamental and tumultuous period in
Britain's history. The contents of the hoard include a highly
significant collection of over 200 silver pennies, mostly of Alfred
the Great, king of Wessex, and Ceolwulf II, king of Mercia,
transforming our understanding of the coinage in this period, and
23 silver and gold pieces of contemporary metalwork much of which
was derived from Scandinavia. Presenting the complete publication
of the objects and coins in the Watlington Hoard - including an
important re-assessment of the coinage of the late 870s - the
authors discuss its wider implications for our understanding of
hoarding in late 9th-century southern Britain, interactions between
the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, and the movements of the Viking
Great Army after the Battle of Edington in 878. The book also
relates another side to the hoard's story, beginning with its
discovery and excavation, charting its path through the
conservation work and acquisition by the Ashmolean Museum to the
public outreach projects which ran alongside the scholarly research
into the hoard.
The origins of the modern, Western concept of money can be traced
back to the earliest electrum coins that were produced in Asia
Minor in the seventh century BCE. While other forms of currency
(shells, jewelry, silver ingots) were in widespread use long before
this, the introduction of coinage aided and accelerated momentous
economic, political, and social developments such as long-distance
trade, wealth creation (and the social differentiation that
followed from that), and the financing of military and political
power. Coinage, though adopted inconsistently across different
ancient societies, became a significant marker of identity and
became embedded in practices of religion and superstition. And this
period also witnessed the emergence of the problems of money -
inflation, monetary instability, and the breakup of monetary unions
- which have surfaced repeatedly in succeeding centuries. Drawing
upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, A Cultural History of
Money in Antiquity presents essays that examine key cultural case
studies of the period on the themes of technologies, ideas, ritual
and religion, the everyday, art and representation, interpretation,
and the issues of the age.
The Enlightenment was a time of monetary turmoil and transformation
in Europe. Change began with a riot of experimentation, including
novel ideas about human agency and capacity to promote economic
progress, efforts to reframe divinity in terms (like the
providential) compatible with market exchange, new instruments of
credit, and innovative institutions such as national banks and
capital markets. Europeans, including the settler societies in
North America, improvised frantically: people faced the task of
everyday exchange in changing media; governments took up the
project of creating currencies that supported their political
power; artists and writers raced to represent new forms of wealth
and interpret the issues they raised; and intellectuals struggled
to conceptualize, and tame, patterns of monetary transformation.
The result was a rich debate, still unsettled, about the sources of
value, the morality of the market, and the very nature of money.
Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, A Cultural
History of Money in the Age of Enlightenment presents essays that
examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of
technologies, ideas, ritual and religion, the everyday, art and
representation, interpretation, and the issues of the age.
The Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher Collection of portrait medals is
unparalleled among those in private hands. Noted for its
comprehensiveness and outstanding quality, it includes medals
dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. This new
volume, the result of a the Schers' gift of 450 medals to The Frick
Collection in 2016, brings to life these masterpieces of
small-scale sculpture, conveying the circumstances of their
creation and their historic significance. Beginning in the Italian
Renaissance, medals were made to commemorate individuals and to
acknowledge specific events or milestones, such as marriages,
deaths, coronations, and military victories. They were precious,
portable, and popular among the wealthy and powerful. This book
provides a concise, fascinating introduction to their artistry.
This new volume in the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles
describes and illustrates the Scottish coins minted between 1603
and 1709 that are held in the National Museum of Scotland's
collection. The Museum also holds an important collection of dies
and related objects, the majority of which belong to the
17th-century Scottish coinage. These have therefore been included
in the volume. Each coin and dye is fully described and clearly
illustrated by high quality photographs. Introductory chapters
discuss the history of the Scottish coinage of the period and
contemporary minting practices. With over 100 plates, a list of
sources of all the coins, concordances, bibliography, and indexes,
the volume is a comprehensive guide to the National Museum of
Scotland's collection.
The second edition of this book presents a new and expanded
exploration of the unusually varied coinage and currency of the
'Great Rebellion' of 1642-1660, a pivotal period in British
history. It builds on further research available since its original
publication in 1990, notably a fresh appraisal of the West Country
mints of Sir Richard Vyvyan and new insights into the numerous
hoards of the time. Along the way, we meet more of the people who
willingly or unwillingly did business with the wartime mints.
Following a description of the currency in circulation in 1642 and
a survey of the organisation of royalist minting during the war,
the royalist mint-franchises are considered in turn. Foreign
coinage, siege issues and the emergency coinages of Ireland are all
described; and the story of the Tower Mint under Parliament is
followed through the Interregnum of 1649-60 to the Restoration of
Charles II. Minting methods at a time of transition from manual to
mechanised production form an important subsidiary theme. Edward
Besly was Numismatist at the National Museum of Wales (Amgueddfa
Cymru) from 1986-2018, having previously worked at the British
Museum. He is best known for his studies of Romano-British coin
hoards and of the coinages of the time of Charles I (1625-49). In
2003 he was awarded the John Sanford Saltus Medal of the British
Numismatic Society.
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