Coin Provenance and Rules for Buying and Selling

Course number: E7

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama

Beyond the text: 12 exercises · 5 coins · 19 readings · 2 references　How reading times are calculated

You will also understand

• You can list, in your own words, the questions to check before acquiring a piece.
• Can state in order the history of anti-counterfeiting technology, from punch marks to reeded edges, portraits, and three-dimensional features.
• Can explain the process by which provenance is created as a record of "when, where, and through whose hands an object has passed."

You can start this course without reading any other course.

Also worth reading, to see the connections (optional)

• Why the Composition of Gold and Silver Coins Changed
  What you learn: You can explain, stage by stage, the order in which fineness falls.

If you want to know more about checking sources (optional)

• Is It Really True? Checking History
  We re-examine the origins of money and famous anecdotes, comparing them with historical records and actual artifacts.

Assessment

12 exercises in this course (8 check, 0 compare, 4 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.

1. Every piece has a provenanceProvenance is part of the value, and once broken it cannot be spliced. Looting leaves the metal and kills the information.
2. A ban is not always written as a banA ban takes three forms: statute, tax, and fixing the price. The one that worked best was the tax, which never said "ban."
3. Price cannot be settled by lawFixing prices failed twice, seventeen centuries apart. Making the penalty heavier changed nothing.
4. What a ban cannot erase — so you checkA ban does not erase the act; it changes who carries it. So do not ask "is it legal" but check origin, route, jurisdiction and gap.
5. An arms race with counterfeiters — a struggle without endThe technology of authentication advanced one step each time it was defeated. The coins in your hand are the latest culmination of this struggle.
6. Betrayal from Within — Potosí 1649When the inspectors themselves commit fraud, punishment alone is not enough to restore trust. A visible reset was necessary.
7. The birthplace of provenance — from the hoard to the ledgerProvenance is not born naturally. A chain of ledgers, beginning with the record of discovery, creates the story of a single coin.
8. NOMISMA's Specimen Room — One Hundred Seventy-Seven Authentic PiecesAll authentic pieces at NOMISMA are only those with both an image and a provenance. Train your eye with the specimens before looking at the market.

• A biography in a single coin　Overview: the world　the modern age　Discovery and Provenance
  §1. The process by which one coin's provenance builds up.
• The Roman Empire　Overview: the world　AD 301　The Defeat of the Price Edict
  §3. The price edict of seventeen centuries ago. Check what happened.
• The Ban on Usury and Persecution　Overview: the world　Gods and money　the Middle Ages
  §4. A case where a ban changed who carried the act.
• Almsgiving and the Ban on Interest　Overview: the world　Gods and money　from the 7th century
  §4. The same ban on interest, taking another form in another religion.
• London, the British Parliament　United States　The mother country forbids it　1751 and 1764
  §2. The reasoning of the side that issued the law.
• A colonial port town　United States　The mother country forbids it　from 1764
  §2. The same law seen from the side that received it.
• Money inside the constitution　United States　1787　The Constitution of the United States, Article 1, Section 10
  §2. The clause of express prohibition itself.
• The national banking system　United States　1865　The counter of a state bank
  §2. ⚠ A case of driving out without writing "ban." This is the core of the course.
• The spring they let go of gold　United States　April 1933　America, the houses of the citizens
  §2. Read minding the gap between the principle and its actual working.
• The paper they printed too much of　France　1793–1794　The market and the square, Paris
  §3. The price edict of the revolutionary period. Look at the relation between the weight of the penalty and the result.
• The birth of the exchange　Netherlands　February 1610　The States General, The Hague
  §4. What it means that it had to be forbidden again and again.
• Tulip mania　Netherlands　1637–1841　A printing shop in the Low Countries
  The other side of §1. ⚠ How a story handed down differs from the sources (it also revises E1).
• The Potosí mint　Spain　The eight reales　1649
  Section 6. Organized fraud inside the mint. Who will inspect the inspectors?
• Potosí, the mint rebuilt　Spain　The eight reales　1652
  The latter half of Section 6. Not punishment, but a design distinguishable at a glance, restored confidence.
• The machine-made coin　Britain　from 1662　The mint in the Tower of London
  Section 5. The first appearance of the milled edge and the edge inscription—DECUS ET TUTAMEN.
• From reconstruction to the palm of the hand　Japan　2024　a Japanese living room
  The modern-day equivalent of Section 5. The arms race continues, all the way to three-dimensional floating portraits.
• Money Born from Law　Greece　4th century BC　The Academy in Athens
  Money exists not by nature, but by law and custom—nomos. You can read this idea, that law constitutes money, in a passage written by the philosopher himself.
• The earthquake and paper (2)　Portugal　the later 18th century　The boundary stones of the Douro valley
  In 1756, the boundaries of a wine-producing region were defined by law, and stone markers were erected in the valley. This was a precursor to the idea that for a name to have value, the scope of what can bear that name must be defined.
• Sending money without carrying it　China　780　A village at autumn tax time
  The Two-Tax System of 780 required that taxes be paid in cash. See who in the marketplace was put at a disadvantage by the single line of text that made cash the means of payment.

• Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970) — UNESCO　The text of the 1970 convention prohibiting the illicit import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property. A legal benchmark for questioning provenance.
• Red Lists Database — International Council of Museums (ICOM)　A list showing types of cultural property at high risk of illicit trafficking, categorized by region. A practical tool for verification before acquisition.

The books and materials referred to in this course.