Overview of Sister Disciplines

F8　—　Neighboring Fields

What lies next to numismatics? Medallic art, the study of ephemera, and notgeld. We will visit these borderline disciplines to define the contours of numismatics from the outside.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): About 6 min (3,063 characters of text at 500 chars/min; exercises and readings not included)　／　Beyond the text: 6 exercises · 1 coins · 4 readings

What this course teaches you to do

• Can explain the difference between medals and coins (the presence or absence of a payment function) and their commonality (the politics of their iconography).
• Can situate bills of exchange, securities, and stamp scrip as subjects within the "study of paper money and related items."
• Be able to analyze emergency money and substitute money as borderline cases.
• Be able to use the method of determining "Is this money?" with a checklist of its functions.

Lessons (6)

1. Metal that cannot be used for payment — An introduction to phaleristicsThe Geuzen medal is not a coin. But the politics of its imagery can be read with the same grammar as a coin.
2. The study of paper instruments — from bills to securitiesBills of exchange, receipts for deposit, and share certificates are all paper that carries a promise. The study of paper instruments is the neighbor of numismatics on its paper side.
3. The Day Stamps Became Money — A Record of IntersectionSmall pieces of paper for postage filled the void of small change. Function, if necessary, will switch its vessel.
4. Coinage in a Besieged City — The Field of Emergency MoneyLozenge-shaped silver, paper from book covers. Emergency money became a specialized field that illuminates the essence of coinage.
5. Tobacco, Shells, and Furs — A Catalogue of Substitute MoneyThings that became currency without being decreed by the state. Substitute money is a laboratory where the genesis of money can be observed.
6. "Is This Money?" — A Method for Determining the BoundaryMeasure with an inventory of functions, and answer by adding time and place. Answer boundary questions not with a binary choice, but with coordinates.

Readings (4)

• The eve　Netherlands　1566　The workshop of an engraver
  Section 1. The free and radical assertion of unpayable metal.
• Islam and India　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　the 9th century　The Origin of the Cheque
  Section 2. A distant ancestor of the cheque. The eastern origin of the lineage of paper instruments.
• The civil war　Spain　1937　A town on the republican side
  Section 3. A single piece contested by philately and numismatics.
• The daalder crosses the sea　Netherlands　the 17th century　The trading post at New Amsterdam
  Section 5. Shells and furs for which an official rate was decreed.

Assessment

6 exercises in this course (4 check, 1 compare, 1 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.