Numismatist

rdf:langString Numismatist

rdf:langString A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin numismatis, genitive of numisma). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Although use of the term numismatics was first recorded in English in 1799, people had been collecting and studying coins long before this, all over the world. The first group chiefly derives pleasure from the simple ownership of monetary devices and studying these coins as private amateur scholars. In the classical field amateur collector studies have achieved quite remarkable progress in the field. Examples are Walter Breen, a well-known example of a noted numismatist who was not an avid collector, and King Farouk I of Egypt was an avid collector who had very little interest in numismatics. Harry Bass by comparison was a noted collector who was also a numismatist. The second group are the coin dealers. Often called professional numismatists, they authenticate or grade coins for commercial purposes. The buying and selling of coin collections by numismatists who are professional dealers advance the study of money, and expert numismatists are consulted by historians, museum curators, and archaeologists. See, for example, the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN) and the British Numismatic Trade Association (BNTA). The third category are scholar numismatists working in public collections, universities or as independent scholars acquiring knowledge about monetary devices, their systems, their economy and their historical context. Coins are especially relevant as a source in the pre-modern period.