INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT NUMISMATICS

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INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT NUMISMATICS

One of the important methods to reconstruct our past is the study of coins. The scholarly discipline of studying the ancient coins is known as numismatics. Not only coins, numismatics also includes the study of all sorts of currencies be it paper money, coins, tokens, or other currency of relative significance. This term was taken from the French word ‘numismatiques’, which was again derived from the Latin word ‘numismatis’. This article enlists some interesting facts about numismatics.

The first city in the world to mint its own gold coins was Florence, situated in Italy. This significant event took place in 1252.
In Britain, the oldest Roman coin was found which was about 2,224 year old. This coin was minted in 211 BC. On one side of the coin, there is the image of Goddess Roma while the other side have the image of mythical twin horses Pollux and Castor.

In the present time, collecting old coins is a hobby of a lot of people across the globe. But in ancient time, it was considered as a royal hobby. Coins were collected both by the kings, the queens, and the nobles.

You can now procure the old coins on the price of its face value. For example, the cost of coins from the nineteenth century is under ten dollars.

In ancient India, cowrie shells were used as important economic tool instead of coins. These had a great value at that time. In fact, Veda has the earliest reference of coins in India.

In 1940 at Gorky in Russia, there was a rain of silver coins all over the city. This was caused by a Tornado which had lifted an old money chest consisting of silver coins. As the wind carried them on, coins were dropped all over the city.

During the rule of Ming dynasty, China issued the largest currency note in the world. In 1917, Romania issued the smallest bank note in the world.

After a scientific experiment, it has been found that coins do not have any distinctive smell of their own. Rather, the smell that you get from the coins is typical of human body odour. You get the smell of iron which your skin releases after oil is secreted from your body after touching the metal.

The largest numismatic organization in the world is American Numismatic Association that was founded in 1891. This Association has the largest circulating numismatic material in the world. It’s headquarter includes the World Money Museum.

Numismatics, or the study of coins began during the European Renaissance. It was a part of the effort to re-discover everything classical.

In 1962, the first international conference for coin collectors was organized at Michigan. It was sponsored by American Numismatic Association and attracted almost 400,000 coin collectors from across the globe.

You can buy coin collections directly from the mint. There are large catalogues filled with details of coins and sets and other information that might readily interest any coin collector. Although it will take some price more than that of the face value, the possession shall still be worth it.

1984worldcoins

thats cool, thank you!

Namvet69

There are Jeopardy show answers in this post. Thanks for sharing. Peace Roy

WQuarterFreddie

Thank you for the history lesson! When I was younger I would have stopped reading after the first paragraph🤣😂. Now as I get older I enjoy learning. This post was a perfect read on a cold Sunday in Maryland.

To prove I did read this I have some questions:

1) What denomination was China's largest currency and Romania's smallest bank notes?

2) In what city was the American Numismatic Association founded in 1891?

3) Why didn't you include the fun fact that the U.S. Mint was founded in 1792? Was it located in Philadelphia? I always wondered if it was located in Philadelphia.

I look forward to hearing your responses!

ZoidMeister

What's fer sail? This is in the BST section, isn't it?

Z