DISCIPLINE

The discipline of numismatics

Numismatics is the discipline of reading coins as historical sources. This is a map of where the discipline was born, where it is currently studied, and what tools it possesses. It also shows how the school's subjects correspond to university practices.

Definition

Numismatics and monetary history deal with coins, medals, monetary representations, and coin-like objects, as well as the political, economic, social, and cultural questions associated with them.
Numismatik und Geldgeschichte befasst sich mit Münzen, Medaillen, Geldzeichen und geldähnlichen Formen sowie den damit verbundenen politischen, wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und kulturwissenschaftlichen Fragestellungen.

The scope is "from antiquity to the present, from the East to the West."

From the official definition of the Institute for Numismatics and Monetary History at the University of Vienna. When the school says "reading coins as historical sources," it is borrowing this definition.　Das Fach Numismatik und Geldgeschichte

Three research areas

The same institute divides the discipline into three areas. The school's subjects are also based on one of these three.

Economic history

Examining coins from the perspective of their "function as money." How many were made, how did they circulate, and for what were they exchanged?

Subjects on the B-axis and F-axis

Iconography

Deciphering the images and text on coins as a means of visual communication. Who tried to convey what to whom?

E5 Reading Iconography

Excavated coins

Documenting and analyzing coin hoards and single finds. A third major area where some methods have become independent.

E3 How to Read Excavated Coins

In Vienna, there is a unique method for reconstructing the striking plan (how many coins were struck with which dies), which is called the "Vienna School."　Das Fach Numismatik und Geldgeschichte

History of the discipline — A bare-bones chronology

People have collected coins since ancient times, but the "discipline of reading" coins has a foundational book.

1792–1798
Joseph Eckhel's "Doctrina numorum veterum" in 8 volumes (Vienna). It reshaped the research methods for ancient coins, and parts of it remain unsurpassed today. Eckhel was a professor at the University of Vienna and director of the Imperial Coin Cabinet. 162 letters from 38 European scholars and collectors are preserved in the coin cabinet of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Joseph Eckhel (1737-1798) and his numismatic network — FWF project P25282
1836
The Royal Numismatic Society (London) is founded. Its original name was The Numismatic Society of London. Its journal is the Numismatic Chronicle.
The Royal Numismatic Society
1858
The American Numismatic Society (New York) is founded. Its collection exceeds 800,000 items and is one of the four great collections in the world.
About — American Numismatic Society
1927
The International Numismatic Council (INC) is established. It brings together research institutions from around the world and holds an international congress every few years.
International Numismatic Council — Supports academic numismatics
1959
A chair in ancient numismatics is established at the University of Frankfurt (Konrad Kraft). Since 2016, it has been "the only permanent professorship in ancient numismatics in Germany."
Archäologie von Münze, Geld und von Wirtschaft in der Antike
2013–2018
Phase 1 of Oxford's Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire project. 12,144 hoards and 3.5 million coins are registered. The number of recorded hoard coins now reaches 7 million.
Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire — Project
2027
International Numismatic Congress in Frankfurt (September 12–17).
International Numismatic Council — Supports academic numismatics

Research institutions — Three schools

These are the three schools mentioned at the school's entrance. The course content has been verified on their official pages.

Institution	What they do	Collection and tools
University of Vienna, Institute for Numismatics and Monetary HistoryAustria	Individual Master's program (120 ECTS, 4 semesters, Master's thesis of approx. 100 pages). Three extension curricula for Bachelor's students (Ancient / Medieval & Early Modern / Practical). Classes handle original objects from the institute's collection.	The institute's collection and a card catalog of over 1 million cards. NUMiD, MANTIS, and Nomisma are used in classes.Curriculum für das Individuelle Masterstudium Numismatik und Geldgeschichte (2019)　Lehrangebot Sommersemester 2025 — Institut für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte
Goethe University Frankfurt, Archaeology of Coinage, Money and Economy in the Ancient WorldGermany	Bachelor's minor and Master's program. In the first course, students learn "description, identification, dating, documentation, and cataloging," and to read excavated coins in their archaeological context.	Digital Coin Cabinet MK-F: approx. 650 original objects, 20,000 plaster casts, 400,000 cards.Archäologie von Münze, Geld und von Wirtschaft in der Antike　Digitales Münzkabinett der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (MK-F) — Über uns
University of Oxford, Heberden Coin Room (Ashmolean Museum)United Kingdom	A museum's coin room and a department of the university. It teaches numismatics in Master's programs for Classics, Byzantine Studies, Oriental Studies, History, and Archaeology, and supervises research degrees. Lectures involve handling original objects from the collection.	Approx. 300,000 items. 9 full-time staff. "The world's largest university coin collection." Home to RPC Online and CHRE.Heberden Coin Room — About the Department

Public databases — Tools of the discipline

Individual coins into types, hoards into catalogs, and terms into common keys. The tools that researchers use daily are open to everyone.

Name	What can be looked up	Scale
RPC Online（Roman Provincial Coinage）	A type catalog of Roman Provincial Coinage. Individual coins can be referred to by their type number.	71,552 types, 431,603 coins (as of September 5, 2026)Roman Provincial Coinage Online — Home
CHRE（Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire）	A catalog of coin hoards from the Roman Empire. It records "a group of coins believed to have been buried together" as a single entry.	7 million coinsCoin Hoards of the Roman Empire — Project
NUMiD	A network and cross-collection search for university coin collections in German-speaking countries.	42 university collectionsNUMiD — Netzwerk universitärer Münzsammlungen in Deutschland
Nomisma.org	A framework for sharing numismatic terms (mints, people, denominations) as Linked Open Data. Used in classes in Vienna.	Lehrangebot Sommersemester 2025 — Institut für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte

Societies and international congresses

1927

International Numismatic Council (INC)

Publishes the "Survey of Numismatic Research 2014–2020" (2 vols.) and the annual report "Compte rendu." The next congress will be held in Frankfurt, September 12–17, 2027.

International Numismatic Council — Supports academic numismatics

1836

Royal Numismatic Society (RNS)

Numismatic Chronicle. Meetings are open to everyone.

The Royal Numismatic Society

1858

American Numismatic Society (ANS)

A collection of over 800,000 items and a numismatic library. Summer graduate seminar.

About — American Numismatic Society

Research practices and the school's subjects

These are 10 recurring themes extracted from the curricula of 15 European institutions surveyed. We have listed where the school's subjects fit in. The empty columns are for future development.

Recurring topics in university teaching	The school's subjects
Description and identification — Making it possible to refer to a coin by its type number	E9　Research PracticeStrengthening the three steps of identification (observation → identification → cataloging)
Handling original objects — Taking collection coins in hand	415 types of original objects (photos are of the actual items in their respective collections)
Hoards and excavated coins — Reading them as groups	E3　Reading Coin Finds
The function of coinage — Examining it as economic history	B05　Iconography and PowerEach subject on the B-axis and F-axis
Iconography — Reading images and text as communication	E5　Iconography
Comparison with other historical sources — Inscriptions, documents, account books	E6　Legends and Inscriptions E1　Source Criticism
Catalogs, databases, and citations	E9　Research PracticeSource Room (ledger of sources)
Metrology and metals — Weight, purity, distribution	E4　Metrology
Die studies — Grouping coins from the same die to read the striking sequence	After image data for the same die types are collected
History of the discipline and practice — The discipline's origins and work in museums and the market	From this page and the readings

Rather than increasing the number of subjects to a university level, our school's policy is to translate university research methods into a form that the general public can use.

Scholarship and banking came out of the same room

Eckhel created a discipline by organizing the emperor's coin cabinet. In the latter half of the same 18th century, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, an antique coin dealer in Frankfurt, was born into a family that supplied collection coins to the Landgrave of Hesse. In 1757, he trained at a bank in Hanover and, through his coin business, became a court agent in 1769. From the same place, the monarch's coin cabinet, scholarship and banking emerged separately.

To the stop of the course 'The Birth of Finance'Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812)