Public Collections of Ancient Coins

Listed here are public institutions with collections of ancient coins. We try to indicate the extent of each collection, whether ancient coins are displayed for public viewing, and website information.

Coins do not lend themselves easily to public display. Serious students will often want to view the coins ( both sides ) either very closely or under magnification. This is difficult for museums to arrange with standard display cases.

· State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia--- The numismatic collection exceeds one million items, including over 130,000 ancient coins. Their website is one of the most sophisticated museum sites I've seen.
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_7_1.html

· National Numismatic Collection (NNC) of the Smithsonian Institution --- A large collection, including ancient coins. The website currently features several virtual exhibits, including "Life in Ancient Greece Reflected in the Coinage of Corinth", "Numismatic Art Comes of Age: The Coins of the Demareteion Master", and "Parthia: The Forgotten Empire".
http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/cadnnc.htm

· American Numismatic Society in New York --- One of the significant collections of the United States. http://www.amnumsoc.org/

· British Museum -- Department of Coins and Medals, London ----http://www.british-museum.ac.uk/coins_medals/index.html

· Staatliche Museen, Muenzkabinett, Berlin ---- One of the best-designed museum websites I've seen. The collection contains approximately 500,000 numismatic items, including 102,000 ancient Greek coins and approximately 50,000 ancient Roman coins.
http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/mk/e/s.html(English version)
http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/(Deutsch)

· Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, England -- Heberden Coin Room ---http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/departments/coin-room/HomePage.html

· Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England -- Department of Coins and Medals ---http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/

· The Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland --- http://www.gla.ac.uk/Museum/
The Hunterian Coin Cabinet --- http://www.gla.ac.uk/museum/HuntMus/MoneyAndMedals/

· The Louvre, Paris, France --- http://www.louvre.fr/

· Münzkabinett -- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria --- http://www.khm.at/khm/static/page23.html Deutsch http://www.khm.at/khm/static/page23.html English

· Museum of Fine Arts, Boston --- http://www.mfa.org/home.htm

· The Getty Museum, California --- http://www.getty.edu/museum/

· Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York --- http://www.metmuseum.org/

· San Antonio Museum of Art --- http://www.sa-museum.org/

· Oriental Institute, Chicago --- http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/default.html

· Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto --- http://www.rom.on.ca/

· Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary --- http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nickle/collections.html#numismatics

· Cincinnati Art Museum --- http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/ Has been reported to have a great display of 170 Greek coins.

· George Washington University, St. Louis --- http://www.gwu.edu/ Reported to have Roman coins on display in the Library.

· Elvehjem Museum, Univesity of Wisconsin, Madison --- http://www.lvm.wisc.edu/index.html Reported to have nice Roman coins on display.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this page.
Anyone with knowledge of these or other fine collections in any country is cordially entreated to send in your comments.

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