All courses

Entrance & method11

What to look at, with one coin in front of you. Reading, measuring, dating — the craft of numismatics itself.

E1Source Criticism8 lessons What to believe, what to doubt "Money originated from barter" — We will verify this textbook explanation by returning to the oldest account books. E2Die Study8 lessons From a single coin, knowing how many were struck Ancient mints have left no production records. E4Metrology8 lessons Count them, and it comes into view Weighing a single coin is meaningless. E5Iconography8 lessons What is depicted, and what is left out Coins were the only medium that the state distributed to all its people. E11Money, Read Through Events8 lessons Reading Mania, Deception, and Crisis from Historical Sources Events do not repeat. E3Reading Coin Finds8 lessons Statistics in the soil A mass of coins buried together in one deposit is called a hoard. E6Legends and Inscriptions8 lessons Read them, and everything comes closer EID MAR—just six letters. E10The Technique of Discovery8 lessons Lay them side by side, turn the difference into a question Other subjects teach repetitions that someone has already found. E7Provenance and Law8 lessons What to know before you buy This one subject does not begin with what is interesting. E9Research Practice8 lessons Only when written does it become scholarship You may make an interesting discovery, but unless you write it, it reaches no one. E8Conservation Science6 lessons Never polish it Do not polish.

Living in the present — practice9

P18 lessons Not Getting Deceived Why even smart people get deceived P28 lessons Reading Numbers and Documents How much can you trust numbers? P48 lessons How Money Works — A Layman's Version Do banks lend out deposits? P38 lessons Household Finances Where does your monthly money come from and where does it go? P58 lessons The State, Money, and You How do taxes, pensions, and social insurance connect to your own money? P68 lessons Principles of Growth and Preservation What does it mean to grow? What does it mean to preserve? P78 lessons The Future of Money Will Cash Disappear? P88 lessons Money and People Why People Make Mistakes with Money P98 lessons How to Learn and How to Verify Where to Look When You Don't Understand

Chronological history4

From before the first coin to the present, age by age. One book per age, read with real objects and an exercise at the end of each chapter.

A008 lessons A Sketch of 2,700 Years Sketch — Map, Chronology, and Data Table A018 lessons Where Did Money Come From? A General History ① — From 3000 BC to 336 BC A068 lessons The World of the Gold Standard A General History ⑥ — From 1816 to 1914 A118 lessons Rice, Coins, and Silver — Japan Part 1 General History ⑦ — From 621 to 1800

Cross-cutting themes20

Birth, debasement, forgery, paper, inflation. The shapes that recurred across 2,700 years, set side by side.

B018 lessons The Birth of Money The "birth of coinage" was not a singular event. B208 lessons A Millennium of Ledgers Why has the story that 'Jews are good with money' been told for a thousand years? B038 lessons Fineness and Debasement The contents of “the same coin” quietly shrink. B048 lessons Nominal and Real A silver coin with “two shu” written on its face. B058 lessons Iconography and Power The face may change while the weight of gold does not. B068 lessons Religion and Money Money, monnaie, Münze. B098 lessons Minting Technology The ridges on the edge of the coin in your hand. B078 lessons War and Money War breaks monetary systems. B108 lessons Counterfeiting Counterfeits are born right on the heels of the genuine article. B168 lessons The Disappearance of a Currency A currency is killed in three ways. B118 lessons Paper Money Why can paper with nothing behind it hold value? B186 lessons The History of Collecting The act of collecting itself has a history. B028 lessons Materials What is money made of? B128 lessons Banking and Credit Credit is the ability to postpone payment. B158 lessons The Anatomy of Inflation When paper multiplies, why does each note weigh less? B178 lessons Money and Law What can law do to money, and what can it not? B138 lessons International Currency One country’s coin becomes another country’s money. B198 lessons Modern Money Is the 10,000 yen in your wallet the same money as the 10,000 yen in your bank account? B088 lessons Unification and Money One standard for all. B148 lessons Monetary Union and Fragmentation Nations that had killed one another in two world wars made their currencies one.

Chains of people14

The people who changed money, and the decisions they made — the same question answered in different centuries.

C016 lessons The Simultaneity of the Axial Age In the sixth century BCE, in Lydia, China, and India, at almost the same time. C038 lessons The Man Who Put His Face on the Coin The man who put his own living face on a coin. C056 lessons The Confrontation of Images In the same decade, two empires gave opposite answers. C138 lessons The Queens The face of a real politician, not an idealised one. C048 lessons The Empire of Debasement Nero began it. C078 lessons The Rediscovery of the Same Law It was not Gresham who wrote, "Bad money drives out good. C088 lessons Nominalism “Money is what the state makes. C098 lessons Japan's Debasement Debate The one who debased it, the one who restored it, the one who debased it again, and the one who burned. C108 lessons Counterfeit Coin and the Pursuer Records survive from the counterfeiters and from those who hunted them. C118 lessons The Life and Death of the Gold Standard The gold standard was not born of nature. C128 lessons Paper Burns When a banknote becomes worthless paper, it is not the paper that is burning. C146 lessons The Collectors The people who collected them also have a story. C068 lessons The Silver Road Silver dug at Potosí passes through Manila and arrives in China. C028 lessons The Unifiers Alexander, the First Emperor of Qin, Charlemagne, Meiji.

Liberal arts — the neighbouring disciplines10

Philosophy, anthropology, literature, art history. Money seen from the disciplines next door.

F16 lessons Philosophy and Intellectual History of Coinage This is the course that explains the origin of our school's name. F26 lessons Anthropology of Money The idea that 'money was born from barter' is not accepted in anthropology. F36 lessons Money and Literature The famine in Hojoki, the impeachment in Oritaku Shiba no Ki, the cattle of Homer. F46 lessons Linguistics of Currency Etymology is the fossil of currency before currency existed. F66 lessons Coinage and Epidemics/Disasters How did currency respond to external shocks? F86 lessons Overview of Sister Disciplines What lies next to numismatics? F56 lessons Numismatics as Art History We will not discuss market prices at all. F76 lessons Cliometrics This course seriously considers the question, "How much was a Roman soldier's annual salary in today's terms? F96 lessons Money and State Theory "Money circulates because the state demands it for taxes"—is this really true? F106 lessons Monetary Theory in the Digital Age We re-examine the question of what credit is, through the lens of two thousand seven hundred years of history.