By the numbers
University Numismatic Collection
This sample from the Sarmas Collection, a gold imitation of the Venetian ducat, dates from 1400-1499.
Princeton NJ — The University Numismatic Collection was started in 1849 when friends of the University, then known as the College of New Jersey, bought and donated a collection of plaster casts of Greek and Roman coins. Today the collection has vast holdings of Greek and Roman coins and also includes coins and related objects from the Byzantine, Western medieval and U.S. colonial eras, making Princeton one of the few American universities with a comprehensive numismatic collection.
• An estimated 75,000 items are held in the collection, including the recently acquired Sarmas Collection of more than 800 coins from medieval Greece and last year’s gift of the Wu Collection of 2,000 ancient and medieval Chinese coins.
• The oldest dated coin in the collection is a Lydian electrum issue, minted circa 600 B.C. in Lydia, Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. The coin is believed to represent the beginning of the Western coinage tradition.
• In the 1930s, Princeton-led excavations of the ancient city Antioch-on-the-Orontes in Turkey led to the acquisition of more than 30,000 coins, the collection’s largest single acquisition.
• Other notable items in the collection include the medal thought to have been given to class of 1773 alumnus Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee for his valor in the Battle of Paulus Hook during the Revolutionary War. There also are examples of paper money issued by Benjamin Franklin that include the print of a leaf, which was used as an anti-counterfeiting device.
• The biggest users of the collection are Princeton students doing research for papers and theses, or viewing items as part of a class or precept. A number of outside researchers and scholars also come to campus each year to view the collection, according to Alan Stahl, the University’s numismatic curator.
• There are currently listings for 3,000 coins and other items posted on the online database for numismatics at www.princeton.edu/~rbsc/department/numismatics/. The University started the database in 2005 to provide Web-based access to the collection through a searchable catalog with photographs and descriptions of the objects.
