Pocket Change

Collectively branded as Pocket Change, the ANS publishes new content frequently on its blog, in The Planchet podcast, as well as videos. Back-issues of ANS Magazine are also available.

RRDP Conference: Coins, Counting, and Community. Exploring Deep Data from...
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RRDP Conference: Coins, Counting, and Community. Exploring Deep Data from the Roman Republican Die Project (9-11 April, 2025)
By Alice Sharpless

The Roman Republican Die Project (RRDP) is looking forward to its conference next month, Coins, Counting, and Community. Exploring Deep Data from the Roman Republican Die Project, to be held on 9-11 April at the American Academy in Rome (AAR). This conference celebrates the work of Richard Schaefer, who has compiled a significant archive of over 300,000 images of Roman republican coins that he identified by die. While Schaefer’s materials are now publicly available through ARCHER, the American Numismatic Society’s archival database, RRDP aims to make his work accessible to researchers through a searchable, linked open data die database (RRDP)…

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Souvenir Card Collection Donated to the ANS Library 
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Souvenir Card Collection Donated to the ANS Library 
By David Hill

While many of the cards show banknotes and stamps, others have only engraved illustrations, or vignettes. This one (B-230) was…

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Triumph of Love: Venus on Roman Republican Coinage
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Triumph of Love: Venus on Roman Republican Coinage
By Alice Sharpless

Love was in the air last week with the celebration of Valentine’s day. In the Roman world, Venus was the…

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Die Links and Sequences 
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Die Links and Sequences 
By David Yoon

One of the essential methods of numismatics is the die study. This involves comparing coins carefully, to see whether similar…

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American Numismatic Society at the 2025 AIA/SCS Annual Meeting in...
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American Numismatic Society at the 2025 AIA/SCS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia: A Celebration of Numismatic Excellence
By Lucia Carbone

Several ANS staff members attended the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and Society for Classical…

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The Curious Case of the Counterfeit from the Trinity Archives
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The Curious Case of the Counterfeit from the Trinity Archives
By Aadya Bedi

The American Numismatic Society has recently acquired a fascinating 1880 counterfeit five-dollar bill—four decades after turning it away.

Fig. 1: 1880…

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Vicken Yegparian Delivers 2024 Stack Family Lecture
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Vicken Yegparian Delivers 2024 Stack Family Lecture
By Jesse Kraft

Figure 1. A packed crowd gathered for the Stack Family Lecture at the ANS on December 5, 2024.

On December 5,…

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H. B. West and his Trained Dogs, Tray and Troy
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H. B. West and his Trained Dogs, Tray and Troy
By Scott Miller

I recently came across a listing for a small, 28 mm brass medal I had seen many times but never…

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The ANS Attends Historic Commemoration of Christian Gobrecht
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The ANS Attends Historic Commemoration of Christian Gobrecht
By Jesse Kraft

Figure 1. Leonard Augsburger, Joseph Menna, Thomas J. Uram, and Ventris C. Gibson unveil a new graveside memorial headstone for…

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Long Table 208. A New/Old Collection: The Kelvin Smith Library...
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Long Table 208. A New/Old Collection: The Kelvin Smith Library Special Collections Roman Coin Collection

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, over 300 ancient and historic coins were donated to the College…

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Alexandria in nummis: A Recent Symposium in Lugano
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Alexandria in nummis: A Recent Symposium in Lugano
By Gilles Bransbourg

Thanks to the Circolo Numismatico Ticinese, a symposium on the Roman imperial coinage of Alexandria took place in Lugano on…

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Long Table 207. War, Weapons, and Heroes: Examples from the...
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Long Table 207. War, Weapons, and Heroes: Examples from the Coinages of Ancient Sicily

In ancient Sicilian coinage, coin types representing war were common. Mariangela Puglisi (Associate Professor of Numismatics at DiCAM – University of…

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Headhunting and Shamanic Voyages? Possible Interpretations of Armorican Celtic Coinage
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Headhunting and Shamanic Voyages? Possible Interpretations of Armorican Celtic Coinage
By Ryan Sullivan

Figure 1. Electrum stater of Aulerci Cenomani depicting multiple, connected heads on the obverse and charioteer, human-headed horse, and winged…

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