Mike R Vosper, Coins - UK MUSEUMS.

UK Museums with Numismatic Contents

With Coin Internet Content No Coin Internet Content (all have collections of coins to view)

No Internet Content (all have collections of coins to view)

Note: Clicking on the coins will take you to that museums coin rooms

With Coin Internet Content

The numismatic collection comprises coins, tokens, medals and related objects. It is wide-ranging, from ancient times to the present with five main areas of strength: Celtic coins; Greek and Roman coins; coins of England and the British Isles; tokens, banknotes and 'paranumismatica', primarily Welsh; commemorative medals and awards, especially relating to Wales and the exploits of Welsh people. There are also small comparative collections of European, British Colonial and World coins.
The collections includes numerous hoards, archaeological site finds and single coin finds from the Roman period onwards. Coins found in, or relating to Wales remain an important element of current collecting. Occasional Welsh finds of treasure, such as the English Civil War hoard from Tregwynt, Pembrokeshire (buried around 1648 and re-discovered in 1996), provide spectacular individual

The National Museum & Gallery
Cathays Park, Cardiff. CF1 3NP

The Manchester Museum:

The collections are divided into the following sections:
Ancient coins: (15,500, excluding hoard material) The Greek, some 3,000 pieces, mostly silver and copper. There are approx. 700 Roman Republican, 8,500 Imperial (excluding Colonial material) and 1,500 Byzantine. Of particular importance is a collection of about 1,500 coins of Roman Alexandria. The Raby bequest contained a fine series of Roman and Byzantine gold coins.
British coins: (4,400) Although the collection is relatively small, there are some fine and rare individual coins.
British Colonial coins: (1,600) Among the collection are some very rare pieces from the West Indies and, nearer home, the Isle of Man (a generous gift from Maud Lister
European coins: (30,000) One of our strengths lies in this section. The coins (generally covering the 17th to 19th centuries) are mostly in copper, but there is a good quantity of silver and a little gold. Countries well represented include France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Holland and Russia.
Oriental coins: (4,000) The Indian collection (which includes that of Daniel Howorth) contains approximately 3,000 specimens, almost all copper, and is particularly strong in the issues from the Moghul invasion to those of the East India Company. There is also a good selection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean coins.
Medallions: (2,000) The collection is mostly of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and covers the whole of Europe. Local material is well represented.
War medals: (100) There is a small representative collection of awards, as single medals and in groups
Hoard material: (2,100) Several late Roman coin hoards and a large selection of coins from the Prestwich Treasure Trove are highlights.
Tokens and others: (4,000) The series of tokens include a large run of seventeenth century pieces from Lancashire; the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are also well represented. The department also possesses an important archive of the medallic work of the famous 20th century artist Edward Carter Preston (a generous gift from his daughter).

Only a small number of coins can be displayed in the galleries at any one time.

University of Manchester
Manchester Museum
University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL

The Fitzwilliam Museum:

Dark-ages to Norman Research

A superb site for research of Early Medieval coin finds of the British Isles c410-1180 where you are able to study some 2,700 items in the corpus of numismatic finds. An excellent site, well worth a visit. Their Early Medieval Corpus is now on line - this is an attempt to record all single finds of coins minted between AD 410 - 1180 and discovered in the British Isles. Currently 2,700 items are catalogued. Details of the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles can also be found on this comprehensive site.

University of Cambridge
Fitzwilliam Museum
Trumpington Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 1RB

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The Ashmolean Museum:

University of Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology: The Heberden Coin Room houses a systematic and comprehensive collection of some three hundred thousand coins and medals. It has an academic staff of six and is a leading international centre for teaching and research in numismatics and monetary history.

University of Oxford
Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 2PH

THE CELTIC COIN INDEX:

Celtic Research

The Celtic Coin Index is a collection of more than 30,800 images of Celtic coins found in Britain. On the site you can find more information about the Index, about Celtic coins in general, and about there plans for making the Index more widely available.

The new permanent numismatic exhibitions based on the renowned 18th-century cabinet of Doctor William Hunter, who bequeathed his fabulous collections to the University of Glasgow, and supplemented by later additions to the Hunterian Museum.
The collections have grown enormously since Hunter's time. At first they were all housed together, but gradually sections were dispersed to appropriate University teaching departments. In 1980 the art collection was transferred to a purpose-built Art Gallery.

This famous institution has a collection of over a million coins, The Money Gallery is well worth a visit

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No Coin Internet Content (all have collections of coins to view)

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
in Chamberlain Square

Birmingham City Museums and Art Gallery
Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery
Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3DH

Colchester Castle in winter

Colchester Museums
Castle Museum, Colchester
Castle Park, Colchester, Essex, CO1 1TJ

External view of the Castle Museum, Norwich

Norwich Castle Museum
Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 3JU

Exterior view of the Bowes museum

The Josephine & John Bowes Museum
Barnard Castle, County Durham. DL12 8NP

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The exterior of the God's House Tower,
Museum of Archaeology, Southampton

Southampton City Council Cultural Services
Southampton City Art Gallery
Cultural Services, Civic Centre, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7LP

York Museums Service
York Castle Museum
Eye of York, York, North Yorkshire, YO1 9RY

No Internet Content (all have collections of coins to view)

Devizes Museum
41 Long Street, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 1NS

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