Turkish Treasures in the ANS

        On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Ottoman dynasty, the ANS will mount an exhibition of Turkish treasures from its own collection and others for the New York International Numismatic Convention, December 4-6, 1998.
        The exhibit, organized by Kenneth MacKenzie and Islamic Curator Michael Bates, while focusing on the coinage of the Ottoman sultans, will be introduced by a display of the range of coins issued by Turkish governments throughout history, from ancient Xinjiang to Egypt to China to the new republics of Central Asia. Subsequent cases will show the origin and development of Ottoman coinage, the diversity of mints and regional issues, and the progress of industrialization of the mint from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Forum on Turkic Coinages
        In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be a colloquium at the NYINC on "Turkish Coins of the Islamic World" on Saturday, December 5, from 6-8 PM in the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel. William Warden, Chair of the ANS Committee on Islamic Coins and NYINC Educational Chairman, has organized the forum and will act as moderator. Participants will include: Kenneth M. MacKenzie, speaking on Turkish coins from the Bayliks to the Ottomans; Wayne G. Sayles, who will discuss the twelfth-century coinage of the Atabeg dynasties; William F. Spengler on the Great Seljuqs, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khwarizmshahs, the early Delhi Sultans and other minor dynasties; and the distinguished Pakistani numismatist, Admiral Sohail Ahmad Khan, a founding member of the Pakistan Numismatic Society and author of the standard work on coins of Pakistan, will speak on the Delhi Sultans. Mr. Warden has scheduled ample time following the illustrated talks for discussion of the papers by members of the audience.
        After the NYINC, the Turkish Treasure exhibit will be transferred to the Society's East Hall where it will remain on display through February 7, 1999. On December 12 a program with a speaker to be named will mark the exhibit re-opening.

 1998 COAC COAC 1998
"Circulating Counterfeits of the Americas"
Promises to be a Conference of Great Interest

        Response to the call for papers for the 1998 Coinage of the Americas Conference on circulating counterfeits has been very enthusiastic. It is evident that this is an area of very active scholarly research. We particularly enjoyed reading about the set-up piece for the counterfeit bust half dollar, struck on a Brazilian 80 reis, which was written about in the July/August 1998 issue of Heritage Insider, where Sheridan Downey described it as "a nifty and oddly desirable example of criminal Americana."
        Two authorities in the field of bogus bust halves, Keith Davignon and Bradley Karoleff, will give a paper at this conference. The program includes many other distinguished researchers. Philip Mossman and Charles Smith have long been serious students of counterfeit halfpence; their paper, "Local and Non-local Production of Counterfeit Coppers for Circulation in British North America in the Eighteenth Century," will include both struck and cast productions in England, Ireland, and British North America. The specialist Mike Ringo has been researching counterfeits very intensely for many years, and promises some new discoveries in November; last month he walked into our office with a pair of dies for a counterfeit 8 reales, so his research is going well. Emmett McDonald recently received information from Eric P. Newman about Newman' s own research on counterfeit detecting devices, which included some devices McDonald had not previously seen, so his research too will have some new discoveries. Colonial specialist John Lorenzo will deliver a paper entitled, "The Counterfeit Spanish Two Reales: Canadian Blacksmiths or North American Tokens?" Other papers will be by John Kleeberg, also on counterfeit 2 reales; by Horace Flatt, on counterfeiting of the Bolivian 4 soles of 1830, which was counterfeited in many countries over many years; by Richard Doty on the counterfeiting of private banknotes; and by Michael Sullivan on counterfeit detectors.
        The ANS will put on a special exhibit of circulating counterfeits in connection with the conference; the exhibit will feature coins described in J. L. Riddell's A Monograph of the Dollar, Good and Bad. Selections from private collections will also be on display; one collector is considering an exhibit of Bungtowns.

Preliminary Program Enclosed
        The Preliminary Program enclosed in this newsletter gives a complete listing of the papers for the conference, together with a registration form for COAC 1998. Participants from outside New York City are advised to make hotel reservations soon since early November is a very popular time for visitors.


 1998 COAC Program
1998
COINAGE OF THE AMERICAS
Conference



"Circulating Counterfeits
of the Americas"






PRELIMINARY PROGRAM


November 7, 1998



THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
Broadway at 155th St., New York, NY 10032 (212) 234-3130


Preliminary Program


Saturday, November 7

9:00-9:45        Registration and Coffee

9:45-10:00        WELCOME
Donald G. Partrick, First Vice-President, ANS
Leslie A. Elam, Executive Director, ANS
John M. Kleeberg, Conference Chairman
"Counterfeits: A Truer Portrait of the Circulation"

10:00-12:30        FIRST SESSION

12:30-2:00        LUNCHEON
2:00-5:00        SECOND SESSION

5:00-6:00        RECEPTION

6:30        DINNER (By Subscription at Keens Chop House)


Registration
        The registration fee of $25 includes admission to all sessions, buffet luncheon, and the afternoon reception. In addition, registrants may order one copy of the Conference Proceedings at the discount price of $20 ($25 list price). This book will be distributed to holders of the ANS 1999 Publications Subscription.
        Registrants and guests are invited to subscribe for the Conference dinner Saturday evening at Keens Chop House ($50 per person). Reservations are limited and will be recorded as received.
Exhibitions
        Exhibits on the program theme will be on display in the Society's East Hall during the Conference. The general public is invited to view the exhibits during regular museum hours on Saturday. Registrants may remain in the exhibit hall until 6:00.
        The American Numismatic Society will mount an exhibition featuring counterfeit coins described in J. L. Riddell, A Monograph of the Dollar: Good and Bad. Important selections from private collections will also be on view, much of which will remain on display through January 1999.
Publications
        The Conference Proceedings will be published in book form and distributed to holders of the ANS Publications Subscription for 1999. Registrants may order a single copy at the discount price of $20; additional copies may be purchased at the list price of $25.
        Proceedings volumes of previous Coinage of the Americas Conferences are still available, offered at $15 (Nos. 2-6) and $25 (Nos. 8-11). Nos. 1 and 7 are out of print.

ANS COAC Standing Committee
Donald G. Partrick, Lloyd Neck, NY, Chairman
Richard G. Doty, Washington, DC
David L. Ganz, New York, NY
Howard W. Herz, Minden, NV
John M. Kleeberg, ANS
Philip L. Mossman, Hampden, ME
Eric P. Newman, St. Louis, MO
Anthony J. Terranova, New York, NY
Leslie A. Elam, Conference Coordinator

Arab-Byzantine Forum Coming in November Arab-Byzantine Forum IV in November

        The fourth forum on the Arab-Byzantine coinage of the Fertile Crescent in the seventh and eighth centuries CE will take place at the Society on Saturday, November 14, at 10:00 AM. The forum is co-sponsored by the Oriental Numismatic Society.
        The Program is still being compiled. Presentations of any sort are welcomed: from formal lectures of a half-hour or so to brief descriptions of new or strange coins. Anyone who wishes to address the meeting should communicate with the Forum organizer, Charles Karukstis, at the address below. Presentations can be:
         Among the speakers this year will be Professor Alan Walmsley of the University of Sydney, who has participated in the excavations at Pella and catalogued the coins found there. He is a specialist in the social and economic history of the region and era.
        Those who wish to attend the Forum, and have not received mailings for previous fora, should also contact Karukstis:
Mr. Charles Paul Karukstis
P.O. Box 221871
Charlotte, NC 28222-1871
704 388-1421
charlie@charliek.com

 Holt to bring Fowler Lecture Inaugural Fowler Lecture September 26

        Professor Frank L. Holt will deliver the first annual Harry W. Fowler Memorial Lecture at the ANS on September 26, at 3:00 PM, speaking on "Every Coin a Mystery: the Quest for Bactria," Holt is Associate Professor of History at the University of Houston, Texas, where he has been teaching since 1982. He is one of the foremost specialists of ancient Bactria in the U.S. and has written extensively on the subject. His book, Alexander the Great and Bactria – The Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia, published by E.J. Brill in 1988, is already in its fourth printing. His latest book, Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria, is scheduled to be released by the University of California Press in 1999. He is also a very successful writer for general audiences as is attested by his many articles in Archaeology Magazine, Aramco World and The Ancient World.
        Professor Holt attended the ANS Graduate Seminar in Numismatics in 1980 and has been an Associate Member since. He was Director of the Houston Mummy Research Program from 1987 through 1990. One could not think of a more suitable candidate to inaugurate the Harry W. Fowler Memorial Lecture since the coins of Bactria were the main area of interest of the ANS past President who assembled a most impressive collection, bequeathed to the ANS at his death in 1994. The lecture will be followed by a reception at the ANS, according the opportunity for informal discussion with the speaker, and by a subscription dinner at The Terrace, the widely acclaimed restaurant atop Columbia University's Butler Hall. Those interested in joined Professor Holt at dinner should contact Arlene Jacobs or Florence Donnelly at the ANS.

ANS Bactrian Sylloge Forthcoming
        The Society's collection of "Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Coins," Part 9 of the SNGANS series, is now in press toward publication at the time of the Fowler Memorial Lecture. Compiled by Osmund Bopearachchi, the ANS sylloge of 1,745 coins is organized by ruler and monetary series following the arrangement established by Bopearachchi in his seminal Monnaies gréco-bactriennes et indo-grecques. Catalogue raisonné. As noted by Bopearachchi in the Introduction to the sylloge, almost the entire ANS Bactrian collection came through the generosity of donors, principally Harry W. Fowler, Edward T. Newell, and William F. Spengler. In the catalogue, the inventory number of each coin and the initials of the donor are cited.

 Wartenberg Attends ANA School Wartenberg Attends ANA Summer School

        Shortly after her arrival at the ANS, Assistant Director Ute Wartenberg went to Colorado Springs where she attended the summer school of the American Numismatic Association from July 11-17. Almost 350 students of numismatics took part in classes offered over a wide variety of topics, such as U.S. coinages, coin photography, medal engraving, or the Internet.
        As a student in a class on counterfeits, Dr. Wartenberg learned much about U.S. coinage, while she was also getting to know the ANA and their impressive headquarters and museum collections. The ANA and its curator, Robert Hoge, hosted a reception in her honor, at which she met many of the ANA Governors and staff members. In a short address, ANS Councillor Eric Newman, who was one of the instructors at the summer school, expressed the wish that both organizations would continue working together to forge closer links for the betterment of the discipline.

 ANS Acquires Historical Medal ANS Acquires Unique Historical Medal

One of the last acts of generosity by former ANS President Harry W. Bass, Jr., was the purchase for the Society's collection of the unique striking in gold of the medal produced by the ANS in 1919 for the Prince of Wales. The medal was made by John Flanagan under the sponsorship of J. Sanford Saltus. In a ceremony aboard the royal yacht in New York harbor, Society President E. T. Newell presented the medal to the Prince, son of King George V. A special presentation box was made for the medal from an elm tree planted in Central Park by the Prince's grandfather Edward VII, when he had visited New York as Prince of Wales in 1860.
The medal remained in the Prince's possession after his coronation as Edward VIII in 1936 and his abdication later that year. In his years as Duke of Windsor, the medal was part of his personal collection, housed in France. At his death in 1972, it passed with his house in the Bois de Boulogne to Mohamed Al Fayed. It was listed in the catalogue of the collection of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, scheduled for sale at Sotheby's in September of 1997, and rescheduled for this February after the death of Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales.
The purchase for the Society of the unique gold striking of this medal followed a tradition of similar gifts to the collection by Harry Bass of gold ANS medals, including the 1903 medal of Amerigo Vespucci by Victor D. Brenner (which had been in the collection of J.P. Morgan), and strikings in gold of the 1983 medal for the Society's 125th anniversary and the 1986 medal for the centenary of the Statue of Liberty.

 Mid-East Forums Mid-East Forums at the ANS

Eastern Mediterranean Workshop Meets
        A workshop on the coinages of the eastern Mediterranean lands in the era of the Crusaders (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) took place at the Society on Saturday, May 16.
        The participants heard four presentations:

Sears Lectures at ANS
        Stuart Sears, an alumnus of the ANS Graduate Seminar and a recipient of the Society's Graduate Fellowship in Numismatics, returned to the Society on July 11 to discuss his doctoral research.
The subject of his talk was "Solving an Enigma: The Immobilized Types of Sistan's Sasanian Style Coinage." Sistan, a province which spans the modern boundary between Iran and Afghanistan, continued to issue Sasanian style silver dirhams under Arab rule for about a half century after the end of the Sasanian empire. These post-Sasanian dirhams were then imitated in turn, perhaps until the end of the eighth century, perhaps by subsidiary mints within Sistan itself, perhaps by unofficial mints, and perhaps by mints of adjacent still non-Muslim territories such as Bust to the east of Sistan. Sears divided this diverse coinage into four series and, using the evidence of style, die linkage, metrology, and metal analysis, suggested chronological and geographical attributions for the coins.
        The lecture was set up on fairly short notice to take advantage of Sears's visit to the ANS for research. It was treated as an event in the Graduate Seminar lecture series, but was also opened to ANS members. Notices were mailed in particular to members who have indicated an interest in Islamic or Sasanian coinage. The lecture was followed by lively discussion, and then by an informal luncheon.
        Sears's Graduate Seminar research paper was expanded into his thesis, A Monetary History of Iraq and Iran, ca. CE 500 to 750, which was presented to the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago, in 1997 for his Ph.D. He is now Assistant Professor in the Department of History of the American University in Cairo.