A Bit of Numismatic Methodology: The social identity of coin hoards, an example of theory and practice in the space between numismatics and archaeology

Myrberg, Nanouschka (Stockholm University, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies), "The social identity of coin hoards: An example of theory and practice in the space between numismatics and archaeology" [in:]  H.-M. von Kaenel and F. Kemmers (eds) 2009. Coins in Context I: New Perspectives for the Interpretation of Coin Finds, Mainz: von Zabern  [Studien zu Fundmünzen der Antike 23] 

Abstract:

Silver coin hoarding is a distinct feature of the Viking Age in some northern European areas, and these hoards convey much information about coin types and chronologies to numismatists. However, there is still no explanation of the custom itself. I argue that hoards should be considered in terms of social categories or genders as a means to understand the specific reasons behind their deposition. This contribution provides examples of this approach through contextualizing hoards and their contents.

I also propose some theoretical premises regarding the role of numismatics in the space between archaeology, history, economic history and art history. Numismatics as a discipline must develop an explicit research agenda of its own in order to benefit equally from the numismatist's knowledge of a coin's primary context (origin), as well as secondary (use and reuse) and tertiary contexts (deposition). Coins do not belong to one single context; neither the one of primary interest to the historian, nor just that which the archaeologist encounters. A numismatic approach sensitive to all contexts opens a wealth of information in terms of the life biography of objects, social relationships, and the routines and cognitive patterns of the society which produced, used and deposited coins.

Try telling that to the ACCG and its members over in the USA.... especially those who boastfully claim there is nothing they do not know about numismatics. Of course when hoards are clandestinely split up and shunted through shady middlemen to dodgy dealers, all of this context is lost, any possibility to interpret them is severely restricted. And we remember one dealer saying that the majority of the fresh coins coming onto the market and of interest to serious collectors are precisely from scattered hoards.