A Compendium Of Numismatic Displays In Museums Around The World (Evergreen)

You are welcome. And thank you for the encouragement.

I was recently at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (https://hammer.ucla.edu/). Beyond the somewhat traditional paintings collected by Dr. Armand Hammer, the focus of the collection is mostly modern and post-modern art, with even a little performance art to spice things up a smidge.

One of the pieces caught my eye as it was a series of four square stock copper bars standing up and propped against the wall. As it turns out, these bars were made from melted down Katanga crosses. Here is a prior thread from our own @medieval on Katanga crosses and their use as a 19th Century primitive money: http://goccf.com/t/188099. I took an overall pic as well as a close-up showing the cast nature of these bars. This piece was created in 2012 by the French artist Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc. As a numismatist, I'm not super-excited about the thought of melting these down to make art. Interesting to look at nonetheless.




The other numismatic-related piece that I noticed was a painting by Rembrandt of Juno. It was painted in the early 1660s and ostensibly is Juno, with her scepter and peacock. It is believed that the model for this painting was Rembrandt's household servant (and, upon the death of his wife, mistress Hendrickje Stoffels). For comparison, I've also posted the rev of a Roman Semis from Augusta Faustina showing Juno with her peacock. Sorry that my coin is so worn--@davidUK's is much, much nicer:

http://goccf.com/t/142126

I saw the Stories on Money exhibit about three years ago, and I was wondering if anyone can say if those are the genuine coins in that display.

Because that case contained every American rarity in the Smithsonian collection, and, if real, I figure must have been worth $50 million or so.

I fully recognize that the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is not a museum, but I would like to point out that there is actually a bit for the numismatist posted in several areas. A couple of exhibits caught my eye recently and I thought I'd share these with you. First, over by the international terminal was a very nice exhibit dedicated to the life of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In the case, were reproductions of his 1957 Spingarn Medal from the NCAAP and his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize:






Then nestled over at the end of the T terminal is an exhibit about WWII and some of the hardships faced by civilian families, I saw some OPA red points. I have posted a example of a red point and blue point from my collection.






Here is a good synopsis of their history.
https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/s...r080908.html

I was in Amman Jordan recently and stopped in at the Jordan Archaeological Museum, which is nestled in between the Temple of Hercules ruins and the Umayyad Mosque. This site overlooks, among other things, the *still-used* Roman Theater built by Antonius Pius (138 - 161 AD).

There are a surprising number of exhibits in this compact museum showing some great medieval coinage from this region. I really liked the design element progression of Arab coinage that was described in some detail:

1. Byzantine knock-offs, but with some Arabic writing and non-Christian symbolism.
2. Byzantine imitations with the Caliph Abed Almalik ben Marwan.
3. Fully Arabic coins with verses from the Quran for the inscription.

I did the best that I could with taking pics, but you must use your imagination a bit with some of them. In any case, here is an interesting group of bronze, silver, and gold coins of the Abbasid Empire (749-1258 AD).




Next are a couple coins from the 13th Century Ilkhan Empire:



Finally, here are two more modern Dirhams (18th Century):



Plenty to see here and I definitely would recommend this museum for the travelling numismatist.

The Jerusalem Archaeological Park (AKA The Davidson Center) in the old city of Jerusalem covers part of the Western wall of the Temple Mount and most of the Southern Wall going up to the valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives. It has a huge amount of land to traverse, with both inside and outside exhibits. Inside, some of the rooms fill the basement of an Umayyad palace dating to the 7th and 8th centuries AD.


According to one placard, during the Second Temple Period, the practice of collecting the Half-Sheqel Tax, earmarked for the maintenance of the Temple, was re-instituted. This was a uniform tax-half a Tyrian silver Sheqel (equivalent to 130 Perutot). The pilgrims required the services of moneychangers to convert their own currencies into the Half-Sheqel coin. Here is a display of a giant pile of Perutots.




And here are both sides of a silver Sheqel minted in Jerusalem. The obv has a chalice and the rev has a stem with three pomegranates (the head of the scepter of the high priest).




As usual, my close-up shots are not very good, but hopefully I am successfully conveying the significance and desirability of visiting this museum on your next trip to Jerusalem.

Here is my bronze Prutah from the First Revolt of the Jews, dated 67-68 AD (year 2). On the rev (with the vine leaf), the inscription reads "The freedom Zion". I didn't pick this piece up in Israel, but rather have had it in my collection for a very long time.

No prob @scopru--I like sharing these in the hope that others will document their numismatic travels on this thread as well.