Etymology of Numismatics

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As we know, numismatics is the study or collection of coins, paper money, and medals. In today's article we study the origins of the word and the hobby.

France 1765-L Ecu, PCGS AU55

The term numismatics was coined in 1829 from the term numismatic, meaning pertaining to historical coins and coinage which was coined in 1765 from the French word numismatique, which had its unknown origins in the late 1500s. Numismatist, a student of coins and coinage, was coined in 1788 from the French word numismatiste.

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carabonnair

The French term for numismatist is now "numismate".
We had a little discussion about this on The E-Sylum early this year. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first appearance of "numismatics"in English was in 1790.
https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n01a15.html

cladking

Curiously "nummulus" meant "little coin" in Latin and was likely derived from a much older term now lost. The Great Pyramid is composed of a limestone that contains many small coin shaped fossils of a species called "nummulites". Indeed, it is the worlds largest coin collection containing some 2 1/2 million large stones of about 2 1/2 tons each and each containing thousands of nummulites.

I believe that the terms "heads" and "tails" for our coins is derived from a game played by ancient Greek children circa 600 BC with Egyptian nummulites whose rules relied on whether the dorsal or ventral side of the fossils landed upright. Of course this is speculative but then many of our terms and ideas date much further back than is apparent.