This note draws attention to previously unnoticed evidence that John White, coin dealer, coin forger, and straw hat vendor in Newgate Street, London, had personal and family connections with Cambridge and Cambridgeshire.
General
2025 BNS Student Bursary Report – Elizabeth Lea
My time working with the British Museum was a dream come true. Upon arriving at the museum, I was astounded to see the galleries for the first time. I was set to work on my first project – going through a collection of Tudor and Civil War coins and creating a database for them.
‘Vigorous, Conscientious, Judicious’: the Reverend PrebendaryJoseph William Hamlet, Vicar of Barrington – a Previously Unknown Contributor to British Numismatics – A.G. Bliss
The Reverend Joseph William Hamlet (1857-1926) was Vicar of Barrington, Somerset, from 1885 till his death in 1926. Though previously known during this period as a key member of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS), antiquarian and beloved parish priest, no specific evidence of numismatic knowledge had previously been observed. This note publishes a suite of recently emerged items likely owned by him, suggesting both knowledge of and engagement with the discipline.
Card Advertising Tokens c.1930? Part 3-Gary Oddie and Alan Judd
This note adds three new advertising tokens to the 13 previously published. The first piece is from Frank Cox, a third-generation cut-glass and china merchant from London. Two further pieces carry advertisements for “Damaroids” and “Dr. Patterson’s Female Pills”, both ineffectual quack medications widely advertised in London in the first half of the twentieth century.
Coins from the Mint at Bury St Edmunds – David Palmer
A recently introduced website which details the coins from the Bury mint is described in the attached note. …. or here to go directly to the Bury website
As much as will lay upon a sixpence – Laura Burnett
We are probably all familiar with the use of modern coins as adhoc scale bars in photographs of objects. A phenomenon so widespread, and accepted, that it is found in scientific journals as well as hurried snaps. We are also familiar with the use of coins as weights, either reflecting their expected weights in societies where they circulated, or re-used as weights once they had gone out of use as coinage. However, when spending a fun lunch hour taking part in the Early Modern Recipes Online transcribeathon last November I was intrigued to come across coins being used as a way to measure a quantity of ingredients, not by weight, but by area….
A Day at the Museum – Part (ii) Moving The Shillington Hoard – Gary Oddie
This note describes a visit to Stockwood Discovery Centre (The Culture Trust, Luton Museum) by members of the Bedford Numismatic Society. The motive for the visit was to help with the safe removal of the hoard of gold aurei that had been found at Shillington, Bedfordshire, found 1998-1999, along with another hoard of denarii and a bronze mirror found nearby. It was a privilege to be asked and a pleasure to help with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look at 127 gold aurei dating from AD 14 – AD 79, one of the largest hoards of Roman gold coins found in Britain.
BNS Museum Student Placement 2023 – Jennifer Webster
Each year the BNS offers bursaries for Museum placements. All undergraduate and postgraduate students currently studying at a UK university are eligible to apply. The 2023 bursary was hosted by the British Museum, and the attached article describes the succesful applicant’s experience.
A Day at the Museum – Part (i) The Search for the Lesser Elongated Squirrel
On 25 July 2023, the author and two members of the Bedford Numismatic Society visited Wardown House Museum and Gallery, in Luton. The “behind the scenes” visit had two main motives. Firstly, inspection and photography of the Museum’s collection of Bedfordshire tokens and also to work through the museum’s holdings of Anglo-Saxon and Norman pennies struck at the Bedford Mint.A follow-up visit to the Stockwood Discovery Centre on 15 August was arranged to view the Bedford Mint pennies, on permanent display there, and also to help the museum with the safe relocation of the Shillington hoard of 127 gold aurei found in 1998 and 1999. This will be written up in a separate Blog. Whilst on site the opportunity was taken to make an elongated penny using a machine in the visitor centre to be described here.
On Collectors and Museums Part 1. Some Historical Opinions and Correspondence – Gary Oddie
In the February 1947 issue of Seaby’s Coin and Medal Bulletin, H.A. (Bert) Seaby wrote a provocative editorial with the title “The Collector vs the Museum – or – Can Museums be Too Greedy?” The main theme was the accumulation of duplicates by acquisition or bequest and the loss of material from the collector market. At that time the coins in question were the classical Greek, Roman, and typically precious metal pieces. The subsequent 75 years has seen much change in the coin world, with the interested population increasing at least twenty fold and almost everything small, round and metallic being collected and studied somewhere. Another factor in expanding interest in British numismatics was the invention of the metal detector and its effect on hardening and polarising the positions of members of some groups. On my mind when I first noticed the Seaby editorial were the recent increased scope of the Treasure Act and the trial and conviction of two
read more On Collectors and Museums Part 1. Some Historical Opinions and Correspondence – Gary Oddie
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