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Numismatics

Containing almost 600,000 coins and medals, BnF’s numismatics collections provide a complete overview of the history of money, from its invention in Lydia in the early 6th century B.C. to the present day.

Numismatics: books and archives

The Coins, Medals and Antiques Department holds 80,000 works, the majority of which cover numismatics. As well as books and journals, these materials include, in particular, exhibition catalogs and sales catalogs. They also cover archeology, glyptics, sigillography, economic history, and art history.

The department also has its own archives dating back to the 1660s, as well as private archives from 19th and 20th century antique dealers and numismatists.

The latter include various learned collections: the Ernest Babelon, Adrien Blanchet, and Claudius Côte collections, etc. They also include correspondence such as both published and unpublished numismatic and archeological works.

These archives form a fundamental collection for the historiography of numismatics and the study of the origins of coins.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011