International News

International News
G. Jonathan Greenwald, Editor

        At an ANS breakfast on the margins of last year's International Numismatic Congress in Berlin, members from Europe and Asia urged the Society to use the ANSNewsletter to inform them better of numismatic happenings outside the United States. This column is a first effort at compliance. As a diplomat until last year, who spent many years abroad, I know how difficult it can be to get timely knowledge of events and ideas in the numismatic world. The aim here is to provide a regular source of information that, hopefully, will be particularly useful to residents of the 56 countries, in addition to the U.S., represented in the ANS's membership books.
        Our loose concept allows for development over time as readers provide feedback on what they want and – most important – as they contribute material. So first things first: Please send reactions, suggestions, and items for publication either through the ANS or directly via fax (703) 237-4804 or E-mail 101651.1764@Compuserve.com. Remember the ANSNewsletter is a quarterly. The next issue goes to make-up in late October for November circulation.
        We envisage that each column will contain at least three components: notices of sales outside the U.S. coming up in the relevant three-month period and offering significant specialty material likely to interest major collectors, also important conferences and conventions; tips for using the Internet to keep current with world-wide numismatic developments, whether of collector or scholarly nature; and, current international issues. We want also to include, whenever possible, news of international members.

Asia
September 4-6 – The Hong Kong International Coin Convention organized by Taisei Coins and China Great Wall Coin Investments, at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile, Kowloon; it will be preceded September 3 by a general sale conducted by Taisei-Baldwin-Gillio.
September 5-6 – The Sydney Coin and Stamp Fair, at the Sydney Opera House.
November 18-19 – Noble Numismatics' Sale #59 in Sydney, Australia; that city also hosts the Numismatic Association of Australia (NAA) Coin, Medal and Banknote Fair November 21-22.
        Colin Pitchfork, Vice President of the Australian Numismatic Society, advises of a small collector group on ancient coins that he runs: the Australian Society of Ancient Numismatics (ASAN). It meets monthly at Noble Numismatics in Sydney. Colin has also provided us a directory of 35 numismatic societies and clubs throughout Australia and New Zealand. Those interested can contact this column or consult the June issue of the "Australian Coin Review."

Europe
September 4 – Italo Vecchi's London auction will feature, we are told, a rare and important Merovingian collection, also extensive Italian and European Medieval material, including three Medieval coin dies.
September 5-6 – The 48th annual national numismatic show in Riccione, the highlight of the Italian calendar.
September 23-Jan. 10 – British Museum exhibition on "Earlier Monetary Unions."
October 1-Mar. 15 – National Collection of Coins and Medals, Leiden, exhibition on "Italian Renaissance Medals."
October 8 – Numismatica Ars Classica of Zurich's sale features the coins of the Moretti Collection displayed until last year in the Antikenmuseum in Basel (Magna Graecia and Sicily).
October 9-10 – The British Numismatic Trade Association's 20th International Show (Coinex 98), at the London Marriott Hotel.
October 14-15 – The 27th International Coin Show in Zurich-Oerlikon, at the Swissotel.
October 19-21 – Leu Numismatik of Zurich's sale offers 300 Greek and an extensive selection of Medieval and Modern coins, including special groups from France, Germany (with a notable series from Montfort), the Holy Roman Empire, Italy and Switzerland. We are told there are important Renaissance coins and medals from all these regions, with the Italian especially outstanding.
October 21-24 – 26^th FIDEM Congress will take place at The Hague, Netherlands. Lectures, workshops, exhibitions. For a brochure and registration forms: International Art Medal Foundation, c/o National Collection of Coins and Medals, Leiden. E-mail to: museum@penningkabinet.nl.
October 21-Dec. 20 – Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, FIDEM exhibition: "Art Medals of the Last 50 Years from 34 Countries."
October 28-30 – Roman coins from the Trier mint are a highlight of the general sale of Dr. Busso Peuss Nachfolger Münzhandlung, Frankfurt a. M. That firm's subsequent event, October 31, continues a twelve-auction series, begun in 1994, to dispose of more than two million commemorative coins of the German Democratic Republic, as well as uncirculated coins and banknotes, obtained from the Staatsbank (Berlin) after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
        These represent, of course, only a fraction of important international activity in early fall. To do better, we need your assistance, especially for Latin America and South Asia.
Paul Naster (1913-1998). The ANS and the world of numismatics have lost one of their great representatives with the death of Paul Naster, who died on June 22, 1998. A rare combination of numismatist, archaeologist, and orientalist, his groundbreaking research illuminated difficult areas in Classical and Oriental numismatics. Born in Louvain, Belgium in 1913, Paul Naster joined the Coin Cabinet of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Brussels in 1942 and was later Professor at the Universite Catholique de Louvain where he taught archaeology, numismatics and economic history. He was closely associated with the ANS which he joined in 1949; in 1968 he was elected a Corresponding Member. Prof. Naster served as Visiting Scholar to the Society's Graduate Seminar in 1966 and in 1986 he was awarded the Huntington Medal Award in recognition of his contributions to research and scholarship in the discipline.

Internet Tips
        The global membership of the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN) includes many of the largest international dealers. The IAPN website, http://www.iapn.ch/iapn/, provides a calendar of members' activities, especially their major sales, often with further links directly to dealer home pages and catalogues. It also informs on publications and links up to the International Bureau for the Suppression of Counterfeit Coins (IBSCC). The latter site contains contact coordinates but is otherwise restricted to members.
        "Numismatique Passion," located at http://www.altern.org/numis/numis.html, is a new French endeavor with considerable potential for the international numismatist. It offers an English option, but those who can manage the language at all will prefer the French version. The site lists numismatic meetings, shows and other activity in dozens of French communities as well as several cities in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. Links are provided to more than 200 numismatic sites worldwide, a few commercial, many more professional or scholarly. These include, as might be expected, the ANS and other major societies, but where else can one conveniently find connections to the Austrian and Norwegian mints and the Numismatic Cabinet of the Slovenian National Museum – not to mention the Cuban Numismatic Museum in Havana? I even found a link to the "Ottilia Buerger Collection of Ancient and Byzantine Coins" at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, where I will teach this year.
        Growing pains are still evident. Movement around the site is slow, the Forum is under used, the Virtual Museum's exhibit, "Coinage From Croesus to the Euro," which could be a fine teaching tool for young numismatists, loads only a portion of its images. Also, most of the exotic links, potentially the most useful feature, seem not yet active. Nevertheless, this is a site worth return visits to check its progress.

Issues
        Europe's integration is an ongoing process of historical dimensions that I witnessed from the U.S. Mission to the European Union (EU) in Brussels, 1993-1997. Dr. Hubert Lanz, President of the Association of German Coin Dealers, calls attention to an area in which this process directly affects numismatics: the new common currency, the Euro's, impact on commemorative coinage.
        The topic, which gains immediacy from the Euro's launch in 11 EU Member States January 1, 1999, appears close to a mutually satisfactory resolution. The European Commission consulted professional numismatists in July. There is already agreement that Euro collector (commemorative) coins are welcomed. EU Member States will retain competence for issuance within volume limits set by the new European Central Bank.
        Two key questions remain, we understand. As formulated by the Commission to European dealers, these are "Do you consider that a limited legal tender status for collector coins would be a solution which would not damage the collector coin business?" And "Do you consider that harmonization of the denominations and technical specifications of collector coins issued by the Euro-area Member States would be desirable or would that negatively affect the collector coin business, which relies on diversity and variety?" Dr. Lanz reports that many mint directors initially favored national freedom of decision on most aspects of such coins while affording them legal tender status only within national borders. He writes that German coin dealers have encouraged Commission efforts to develop a new consensus. They want Euro commemoratives to have EU-wide validity and national authorities to control designs while accepting volume limits and harmonization of specifications. Austria, France and others, he said, entered the summer consultations desiring, for marketing purposes, to produce larger numbers of what he called "pseudo-coins" with restricted legal tender status.

Charles Hersh Honored ANS Fellow Charles Hersh Feted at BM

        On the occasion of his 75th birthday, ANS Life Fellow Charles Hersh was greeted by almost 100 friends and colleagues at a reception in his honor on June 4, 1998 at the British Museum in London. Hosts for the affair were Robert Anderson, Director of the British Museum and California businessman Richard B. Witschonke, who, like Charles, is an ardent student of Roman coinage as well as an ANS Life Fellow. It was an international event, which brought together friends from the academic and commercial world with other old friends and family from as far as Australia, the U.S. and many European countries.
        In his address Dr. Anderson recounted Charles's life-long association with the Department of Coins and Medals where he developed his interest in Roman and Greek coins. As a token of friendship and of his own gratitude to his mentor, Mr. Witschonke presented a special leather-bound volume of essays on Macedonian and Roman Republican coins in Charles Hersh's honor, which had been prepared as surprise gift for the occasion and had been kept from him until that moment as a well-guarded secret.
        Following the ceremonies, Mr. Witschonke hosted a dinner at Rules Restaurant in Convent Garden, where the party spent a most enjoyable evening. The reception and dinner were attended by many distinguished numismatists and friends, among them ANS staff members William Metcalf, Chief Curator, and Ute Wartenberg, Assistant Director.

Hersh Book Available
        Coins of Macedonia and Rome: Essays in Honor of Charles Hersh, ed. by A.M. Burnett, U. Wartenberg, R.B. Witschonke (1998), is available from the publisher, Spinks, London. The book includes a collection of essays, written by selected experts in the two fields of Charles Hersh's interests. Several ANS members, including staff members Francis Campbell, Librarian, William Metcalf, Chief Curator, and Ute Wartenberg, Assistant Director, contributed articles, as did Hyla Troxell, a long time volunteer in the ANS Greek department.