September 2005.

Next club meeting - Monday 3th. October 2005.

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

September meeting

Thirty members and three guests came to the September meeting to hear Mr John White speak on the Life & Times of the Emperor Aurelian (270 - 275 AD)

This number of members in attendance must surely be a record for the club over the past 2 decades.

By way of introduction, Mr White explained he was not a numismatist but an historian, and as such was no expert on coins; this certainly was not evident from the amount of numismatic information imparted during the talk. His talk was packed full of facts, beginning with Republic and the expanding into the Imperial era. For each period and Emperor we heard about the economics prevailing at the time, the rise of Roman dominance, the aspirations of the surrounding Barbarians/ Empires and how the currency was changed and managed to fuel the economy and pay for the army. In particular we heard how the sources of silver dictated the Roman expansion and how others wished to have a share.

As the Roman Empire grew so Rome found it more and more difficult to defend and administer the extensive boarder areas. Thus Emperors were forced to appoint governors, some whom had visions of power beyond their status. As time progressed the Emperors seemed to spend more time quelling rebellions, fighting the northern Barbarians or eastern Persians and dealing with usurpers, rather than dealing with administrative matters activities in Rome itself. Set against this background was the need for a stable currency, which necessitated continual adjustments, particularly to satisfy the needs of the army. In the latter part of his talk Mr White related the career details of Aurelian, How he crushed numerous Barbarian tribes around the extremities of the Empire, including the Persians, thus earning himself the name of `Restorer of the World'. Nearer home he built the wall around Rome, reformed Pagan religions and reformed the basis of the coinage by introducing the gold ' Solidus'. Aurelian was a very popular Emperor so it is somewhat surprising that he was murdered by his own guards. However, it is quite understandable because at the time he was in fact putting down internal corruption.

To conclude Mr White summarised Aurelian's achievements. He laid the foundation for the Western Roman empire to lasted another 200 years until 476. He did even better with the East for the eastern empire lasted another 1200 years until 1453 and was the source of the western Renaissance in the middle ages. He also preserved civilisation from the Barbarians since they were converted to Christianity.

Our thanks to Mr White for a really good talk full of numismatic detail.

Summer Social

For this years Summer social nine members visited the Museum of London. The curator, Mr Alex Werner, wanted to show us coins and tokens not only for their historical/ archaeological information but also how they are used to enhance the gallery displays.

The first part of the visit was a guided tour around the Roman gallery with the curator Mrs J Hall. The gallery is made up of a series of displays depicting typical aspect of life in Roman London. In talking about the displays the curator showed us how the mainly bronze coins are placed in the context of the subject on show. Many of the displays are really very good, but 2 in particular come to mind.

Firstly the hoard of Roman gold coins found secreted in the remains of a building floor. No other Roman gold coins have been found in London and the wide range of emperors and portrait typed make this a particularly important find. It has been speculated that these coins, minted over several decades, may have been the property of a goldsmith and deliberately hidden in a Roman style `floor safe'.

The second display of note was that covering the making of cast forgeries. Many discarded coin moulds have been found buried in the Roman walls. Coin moulds such as these are extremely rare so to find so many (~700) in London is of great interest to scholars. It has enabled the process used for forging to be worked out. A series of moulds was placed in a stack like a pile of draughts. Several piles were then bought together around a circle. Each mould had a hole connecting it to the central shaft formed by the circular piles of moulds. Metal was then poured down the central shaft, which then flowed into each mould. An actual coin still in its mould has the tell tale tail of metal still attached to its edge.

Also of interest was the display of coins illustrating the various forms of the `London legend' and mint marks. The talk given by Mrs Hall as we toured the gallery was excellent, informative and really very interesting. (a club speaker for the future?)

The next part of the visit was to examine some of the museums collection of 18th century London tokens. However, before seeing the actual pieces Mr Werner gave a interesting introductory talk on the political and social scene of the times. There was political uncertainty due to social inequalities, the influences/fallout from the French Revolution, the general unrest amongst the various strata's of society striving for greater freedom, the expansion in trade resulting from the Industrial Revolution and Britain's rapid rise as a worldwide commercial and military power. By way of background Mr Werner produced several boxes containing late 18th century newspapers, business cards, invoices and trade advertisements. From these documents it was evident that while tokens were first issued to alleviate currency deficiencies and later as pure advertisements their iconography and legends conveyed a message not dissimilar with that of the paper ephemera shown to us. To see many of the tokens in this context was most interesting and certainly makes one view such tokens more than merely stamped metal discs. Throughout the talk we were shown many examples of London tokens that have been bequeathed to the museum. To conclude the visit we were given a conducted tour of the `New World' gallery to once again see how coins are used in the context of the display. As some of the displays are quite large, whereas by comparison coins are very small, the curator was interested in our views as to how best to exhibit the coins so that the detail could be readily discerned.

Overall a very good day out to a museum that is well worth a visit. Our thanks go to both curators Mr Werner and Mrs Hall for entertaining us so well - and the pub lunch afterwards was most agreeable.

Obituary.

It is very sad to report the sudden death of long standing member John Newman.

John attended the club over many years and served on the committee in various capacities. He will be greatly missed and we extend our condolences to his wife and children. Several members, who were close friends of John, attended the funeral.

Future Events.

DNW Auction - 28th September

Spinks Auctions 29th September

Coinex at the Platinum Suite, Excel 1, Docklands - 30th September/ 1stOctober

Baldwins Coin Auctions - 4th October

Birmingham Coin Fair. Sunday 9th October at Meriden