The forty-sixth Graduate Seminar in Numismatics opened at the museum on June 16 with twelve students (eleven American, one foreign) in attendance. The Visiting Scholar was Christopher Howgego of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, who presented a trilogy of lectures on "Coins and Culture." In addition to his responsibilities for overseeing the work of the students, Dr. Howgego incorporated data regarding some 3,000 coins of Roman Alexandria into a database for use in Roman Provincial Coinage, vol. 4. Outside speakers during the seminar included T. V. Buttrey (University of Cambridge), "Noah's Ark on Roman Provincial Coins"; Sarah E. Cox (Columbia University) on Roman Architecture and Coins; Stuart Sears (American University in Cairo) on Sasanian coins; Stephen Scher on Renaissance collecting and the origins of the medal; and Eric Newman on early American currency.

Presentations took place during the week of August 9. The presentations were as follows: Peter van Alfen (University of Texas), 'Athenian Imitations from the 1973 Iraq hoard"; Mary Downs (Collegio de La Fronrera Norte), "The Coinages of Southern Iberia in the 2nd and Centuries B.C."; Ildar H. Garipzanov (Central European University), "The Coinage of Tours in the Merovingian Period"; Melanie D. Grunow (University of Michigan), "Architectura Numismatica with Figures"; Daniel Hobbins (University of Notre Dame), "The Reform of French Coinage in 1360"; Rachel Kousser (Institute of Fine Arts), "Venus Victorious"; Elizabeth Marlowe (Columbia University), "Captives, Kings, and Provinces: Negotiating Political Status on Roman Imperial Coinage"; Scott McDonough (University of California, Los Angeles), "Counterstamps and Coin Hoards: Evidence for the Circulation of Coinage in the Sasanian Empire and Central Asia"; Nerina Rustomji (Columbia University), "At the Gateway: Shaping Islam through the Local Coinage of the Ghaznavids (A.D. 977-1186/366-582 A.H.)"; Susan Spinale (Harvard University), "East meets West: The Italian Portrait Medals of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II"; Alexander G. Them (University of Pennsylvania), "L. Cornelius Sulla, Servius Tullius, and the City of Rome"; and Christine Thompson (Tufts University), "The Civic Tetradrachms of Seleucia in Pieria."

Grants in support of attendance at the Seminar are made possible by a generous donation from Mr. and Mrs. Eric P. Newman.

The Archer M. Huntington Medal Award
The Archer M. Huntington Medal for 1998 was presented on March 21 to Stanislaw Suchodolski, Professor in the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. The ceremony was also attended by His Excellency Eugeniusz Wyzner, Polish Ambassador to the United Nations, and by Prof. Felix Gross, President of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in America. Prof. Suchodolski is the first Pole to receive the Huntington Medal. Mark M. Salton, Chairman of the Huntington Medal Committee, read the citation.

"There is no better symbol of the importance of the Polish contribution to numismatics than the name ofJoachim Lelewel in the center of the archirrave over the door leading into the headquarters of the American Numismatic Society. Lelewel has been called the father of medieval numismatics, and his 1835 three-volume Numismatique du Moyen Age is not only the first comprehensive account of medieval European coinage, but remains one of the only such integrative works to come from the pen of a single author. Lelewel died over fifty years before the institution of our Archer M. Huntington Award in 1918, and no Polish numismatist has been among its recipients in the intervening years. It is with great pleasure that we bestow this year's award on a scholar who exemplifies the highest standards of Polish numismatics, and of our discipline as a whole, Professor Stanislaw Suchodolski.

"Professor Suchodolski is an example of that rarest issue in medieval numismatics: a generalist. His 1982 book on coinage and monetaty history in early medieval Western Europe is the only comprehensive treatment of this complex and crucial period by an individual author. In detailed articles in English, French and German on such aspects of the numismatics of this period as the coinages of the Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, and Suevi, and especially the Carolingians, Suchodolski has brought the results of his scholarship to a wide numismatic public. As well as dealing with the developing coinage systems in themselves, Suchodolski has made important contributions to the theoretical and methodological literature of early medieval numismatics with his discussions of monetary circulation, the movements from gold-based to silver-based currency systems, and the metrology of Roman and Carolingian coinages.

"He has achieved a similarly broad overview of the development of coinage in the central Middle Ages with his 1971 book on the beginnings of coinage in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe, and subsequent articles and monographs on the earliest Rhineland, Bavarian, Bohemian, Hungarian and Scandinavian issues. Among his major contributions to the general literature on the coinages of the tenth through twelfth century is his article on the institution of Renovatio Monetae, the standard treatment of this important medieval monetary phenomenon.

"It is, not surprisingly, the medieval coinage of Poland itself which has most benefited from Suchodolski's probing inquiry. In three books and dozens of articles, he has explored and explained the organization and techniques of minting, the circulation of coins and ingors, and the relationship of royal issues to those of magnates and ecclesiasrics in medieval Poland. These investigations have always placed Polish coinage in the context of the history and economics of the era and in relation to the coinages of Poland's neighbors and of Europe as a whole.

"Just as he has never isolated Polish medieval coinage from it broader context, Stanislaw Suchodolski has always been an active participant in the international numismatic community, even when conditions in Eastern Europe made this a difficult endeavor. He is Professor at the Institute for the History of Material Culture in Warsaw, an institution which has long set an example for the rest of the world with its rigorous methodology in medieval archaeology and for its training excavations throughout Western Europe; in 1984 he was named Professor of the Polish Academy of Science. In over three decades as editor of the prestigious Wiadomosci Numismatyczne, he had played a major role in bringing the work of a generation of Polish scholars to the world. Since 1991 he has served the worldwide numismatic community as a member of the governing Bureau of the International Numismatic Commission.

"It is for his many contributions to our knowledge of the coinage of medieval Europe, and for his service to the discipline of numismatics as a whole, that the American Numismatic Society bestows upon Stanislaw Suchodolski the Archer M. Huntington Award for 1998."

Prof Suchodolski read his reply in French, and a translation was circulated.

"Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, first I want to apologize for not speaking English, but my knowledge of the language is so feeble that I would not be able to express my thoughts freely. Other alternatives available to me—to speak in German, Russian, or my native tongue, would no doubt be even less acceptable to you.

"Then I must say that I am very happy and indeed thrilled to be the recipient of your prize, which is well known and no less prestigious. Permit me to express the three principal reasons for my joy.

"The first is simple, indeed banal. It is simply that the prize is awarded by the American Numismatic Society, one of the most famous and best-known numismatic institutions in the world. As you know perfectly well, it comprises, in addition to a society of members and a museum with rich collections, a center for study. The brilliant results of research carried on here are presented in the publications of the Society.

"The second reason for my satisfaction is that I come from that part of Europe which, up until a short time ago, was isolated from the rest of the world. Numismatists, to be sure, were not particularly persecuted by the regimes, but still it is clear that research in the countries which called themselves socialist was more difficult. This was true particularly as it involved international contacts. Today's ceremony proves that the situation has become almost normal. You see before you a representative from the other side of the former iron curtain, and he has come here without any difficulty at all.

"For me personally the situation is still more pleasant in that I am the first Pole to be so honored. I am a member of what one calls the 'Polish school' of numismatics, founded by Ryszard Kiersnowski, my teacher and friend. I hope that he is also known abroad as the former vice-president of the International Commission, alongside Margaret Thompson; as a Corresponding Member of the American Numismatic Society; and finally as a participant in international congresses, among others the New York-Washington Congress. It is to Ryszard Kiersnowski that I owe my training as a numismatist. Obviously he has a part in today's ceremony.

"And finally the third reason for my satisfaction. As a medievalist, I am very pleased to be your medallist. To be sure, there are many among your list of winners; but they are much in the minority, dominated by their colleagues who study ancient coinage. The preponderance of this group is still visible in the course of international congresses.

"These are the reasons for my joy. For it, but above all for the great honor I am receiving, I thank you all most warmly."

Prof Suchodolski then delivered the Margaret Thompson Memorial Lecture on "Coin Finds and Archaeological Contexts: A Tentative Classification." Though it had been announced that he would speak in French, Prof Suchodolski addressed the audience in English. The award ceremony was followed by a reception and a subscription dinner.

The J. Sanford Saltus Medal Award
Portuguese artist Helder Batista is the recipient of the 1998 J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal, presented in ceremonies held at the American Numismatic Society on February 14. Batista is the leading representative of the Portuguese school of medalhic art, which has worked closely with the Portuguese State Mint to bring the modern struck medal to an artistic and technical level unsurpassed elsewhere. On behalf of the Saltus Committee, Stephen K. Scher read the citation.

"For the past few decades, the Portuguese medal has taken a different path from that of most other countries, and Helder Batista has been the guide leading this journey. In fact, the road which the Portuguese medal has taken is an extension of the direction which the medal as a medium had been heading for centuries. On the whole, Portuguese medals of today are commissioned pieces, commemorating specific events with current styles of fine and graphic arts, struck by major mints using advanced technology. While some Portuguese medalists have followed the trend in other countries towards personal cast medals, most have followed Helder Batista in adapting the traditional aspects of the medal to a distinctively twentieth-century creation.

"Batista's genius shows itself initially in the basic concept for each medal and for each subject he finds a visual representation which is clear and appropriate but also arresting and often unexpected. Thus his 1986 medal for the Portuguese Artillery School features a cannon ball breaking through the plane of the medal, a dynamic alternative to the more usual static representation of a cannon. His medal for the inauguration of the Soporcel paper factory uses the metaphorical term "leaf" as the basis for an image of a turning page affording access to the material world.

"His original concept is then elaborated in the meticulous execution of design. This is illustrated in the medal for the Tenth Anniversary of the Febritas Corporation, where the complex interaction of the planes of each side elaborates the theme of the contrast of natural and manufactured materials. His medal for the Europalia Art Festival of 1991 depicts the Portuguese explorer as a dynamic head emerging from a liquid surface, with the reverse of an armillary globe symbolizing the search for paths to new worlds. A central aspect of Batista's attention to the interplay of form and content is his consummate use of epigraphy. The lettering of each medal is adapted to its subject, as in his medal for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Gulbenkian Foundation where the square alphabet mirrors the geometry of the piece itself.

"The final aspect of Batista's command of the medallic medium is the exacting care with which he oversees the technical aspects of the production of his medals, most of which have been struck by the Portuguese State Mint. This is apparent in the subtle finish of his 1993 medal for 450 years of PortugueseJapanese friendship, where the gently folding screen contrasts with the medal's surface not only in its delicate use of patina but also in its subtly textured surfaces, or the medal for the 700th anniversary of the Portuguese University, whose production involves complex edge tooling as well as exacting metallic finishes.

"In three decades as professor of medallic sculpture at the Superior School of Fine Arts of Lisbon, Helder Batista has been the guiding light to a generation of innovative and talented Portuguese medalists. He has also been an instrumental participant in the important Portuguese presence at FIDEM congresses and other international medallic venues. It is, however, for the brilliant perfection of his own medallic creations that the American Numismatic Society bestows upon Helder Batista the 1998 J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal."

A retrospective exhibit of Batista's work, including sculpture and graphics as well as medals from the artist's collection, was on exhibit at the Society.

This Saltus Meeting also featured the second annual presentation of the Stephen K. Scher Lecture on the Art and History of the Medal. The speaker this year was Richard Brilliant, Anna S. Garbedian Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University, who gave an illustrated talk on "What's So Special about Roman Medals?"


The Graduate Fellowship
The American Numismatic Society awards a fellowship of $3,500 to a university graduate student in the field of the humanities or the social sciences who has completed the general examinations (or the equivalent) for the doctorate, who will be writing a dissertation during the academic year on a topic in which the use of numismatic evidence plays a significant role, and who has attended the American Numismatic Society's Graduate Seminar prior to the time of application. The Council reserves the right to waive any of the listed requirements. Applications are due by March 1 annually and the announcement is made April 1.


The Fellowship in Roman Studies
The Fellowship in Roman Studies for 1998/9 has been awarded to Karen E. Ros, Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art at the University of Indiana. Dr. Ros is an alumna of the 1985 Graduate Seminar. She received her A.B. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College, and her A.M. and Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan. She taught at the University of Toronto and McMaster University before joining the faculty at Indiana. She is currently working on a book on Roman portraits from Carthage, but hopes to use the Roman Studies Fellowship to complete a study of Roman adventus and profectio coins.


The Shaykh Hamad Fellowship
The Shaykh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani Fellowship in Islamic Numismatics for the academic year 1998/9 has been awarded to Roxani Margariti, renewing her appointment from the previous year. She is a graduate student at Princeton University and is a specialist in nautical archaeology and maritime history.
The Shaykh Hamad bin Abdullah al-Thani Fellowship in Islamic Numismatics is made possible by a generous donation to the Islamic Department from Shaykh Hamad of Qatar, a member of the ANS. The Fellowship provides a stipend of $3,000 and is intended to combine service to the Society with training in Islamic numismatics and museum practice.

The Frances M. Schwartz Fellowship
The Frances M. Schwartz Fellowship was created in 1985 to support work and the study of numismatic and museum methodology at the American Numismatic Society. Applicants must have the B.A. or the equivalent and the stipend of not more than $2,000 varies with the term of tenure which is usually the academic year. The deadline for applications is March 1 and the award recipient is announced on April 1.

The Donald Groves Fund
Through the Donald Groves Fund the Society seeks to promote research and publications in the field of early American numismatists involving material dated no later than 1800. Funding is available for travel and other expenses in association with research as well as publication costs. Applications for support should be addressed to the Secretary of the Society and should include an outline of the proposed research project, the method of accomplishing the research, funding requested, and the specific uses to which the funding will be put. Applications will also be considered for publication support for manuscripts on topics meeting the Fund's criteria. Applications are reviewed periodically by the Donald Groves Fund Committee.

Coinage of the Americas Conference
Each year the Society's Standing Committee on COAC organizes a conference on a particular topic devoted to the money of the Americas. One of the iasting benefits of the annual COAC, begun in 1984, lies in the effort made by the committee and the annual conference chairman to concentrate the talents and energies of many individuals on the conference program and its resultant publication. COAC has come to assure both a focus of intellectual interest on specific problems and a record of the latest scholarship in these areas of monetary history Two of the past fourteen conferences have focused on subjects beyond the United States, "The Coinage of El Peru" in 1988 and "Canada's Money" in 1992. The remaining conferences to date have dealt with U.S. Colonial and Federal numismatic topics covering coinage by metal, paper money, medals, and tokens. The opening of the second decade of COAC was ushered in by further specificity of topics as the 1995 program discussed "Coinage of the American Confederation Period," a short but extremely active era in American numismatic history The 1996 conference, on "Americas Large Cent," focused on another brief but numismatically intense period. The 1997 program reprised the theme of ten years earlier, "The Medal in America." The most recent program focused on "Circulating Counterfeits of the Americas."

From the outset, each year's program has been developed and superintended by a committee and a conference chairman. In the early years the committee was selected ad hoc. In 1992, recognizing the need for long term continuity in planning for conferences several years in advance, ANS President R. Henry Norweb, Jr., appointed a COAC Standing Committee with Donald G. Partrick as Chairman. Each COAC continues to have a Conference Chairman whose responsibilities include moderating the proceedings and the discussions engendered by presentations and editing the papers for publication.

To date, COAC Proceedings volumes have earned three awards. In 1991, the Lewis M. Reagan Memorial Foundation, through the Professional Numismatists Guild, presented its Robert Friedberg Award to the ANS for the "outstanding series on Coinages of the Americas," noting in particular America's Gold Coinage, edited by William E. Metcalf, published in 1990. In 1995, the Canadian Numismatic Research Council conveyed its Fred Bowman Numismatic Research Award on the ANS "in recognition of their well-researched work on a Canadian numismatic subject entitled Canada's Money, edited by John M. Kleeberg," published in 1994. Coinage of the American Confederation Period, edited by Philip L. Mossman, reporting the proceedings of COAC 1995, received the Numismatic Literary Guild's "Best Museum Catalog" award at its annual meeting in July 1997.


Conference Summary
COAC 14 (1998):
Circulating Counterfeits of the Americas, John M. Kleeberg, Conference Chairman.

PROGRAM:
Philip L. Mossman and Charles W Smith, "Local and Non-Local Production of Counterfeit Coppers for Circulation in British North America in the Eighteenth Century."
Michael K. Ringo, "Attributing Bungtown Coppers."
Horace Flatt, "Counterfeiting of the Bolivian Four Soles of 1830."
Keith Davignon and Bradley Karoleff, "Circulating Counterfeit Bust Half Dollars, 1808-1842."
John Lorenzo, "The Counterfeit Spanish Two Reales: Canadian Blacksmiths or North American Tokens?"
John M. Kleeberg, "Counterfeit Two Reales."
Richard G. Doty, "Adding Insult to Injury: Altered Notes from the Southern Bank of Georgia, Bainbridge."
Michael Sullivan, "Counterfeit Detectors: Changing Technology in Paper Money"
Emmett McDonald, "Nineteenth Century Counterfeit Coin Detecting Devices."

EXHIBITORS:
Michael Ringo
Anthony Terranova
A.N.S.

PUBLICATION:
John M. Kleeberg, ed., Circulating Counterfeits of America (1999) in preparation.

ANS COAC STANDING COMMITTEE:
Donald G. Partrick, Chairman; Richard G. Doty; David L. Ganz; Howard W Herz; John M. Kleeberg; Philip L. Mossman; Eric P. Newman; Anthony J. Terranova; Leslie A. Elam, Conference Coordinator.

Public Meetings
The one hundred and fortieth Annual Meeting of the Society took place on October 25, 1997. The Librarian and Curators reported on the year's notable acquisitions in slide-illustrated talks, and elections for the Society's Council were held. Two new members were elected to Council, Clifford L. Mishler of Iola, WI, and Ellen D. Reeder of Baltimore, MD.

COAC 1997 took place on November 8 and 9 focusing on "The Medal in America." A week later, on November 15, the third annual Arab-Byzantine Forum took place featuring six presentations on the Byzantine-type coinage issued under Arab rule in Bilad al-Sham.

On January 9, 1998, the David M. Bullowa Memorial Conference was held. Alumni of the 1997 Graduate Seminar in Numismatics gave three presentations. John C. Hansen spoke on "The Coinage of the Hellenistic Boeotian League," Carlos Norena addressed "Vespasian's Coinage and the Assertion of Dynasty," and Joel Allen discussed "Trajan's COS V Aurei."

On February 14, the J. Sanford Saltus Medal was presented to Helder Batista. Following the presentation, the second Stephen K. Scher Lecture on the art of the medal was delivered by Richard Brilliant, the Anna S. Garbedian Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University. Professor Brilliant delivered a slideillustrated talk on "'What's So Special about Roman Medals?" February 28 was the date of the fifth annual Day of the Etruscans. The guest speaker was Dr. Marjatta Nielsen of Copenhagen who gave a slide illustrated lecture on "Buried Matriarchies: Women's Tombs in Etruria."

The annual presentation of the Archer M. Huntington Medal for distinguished contributions to numismatics took place on March 21. This year's medalist was Professor Stanislaw Suchodolski of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. He and his wife were in New York for the presentation and his response to the citation was given in French. He then delivered the Margaret Thompson Memorial Lecture on "Coin Finds and Archaeological Contexts: A Tentative Classification" in English. The meeting was followed by a reception and a subscription dinner.

The first Groves Forum in American Numismatics took place on April 18. Dr. Philip L. Mossman delivered an address on "The Stepney Hoard of Connecticut Coppers, 48 Years after the Fact(?)" to a full house. Dr. Mossman is well known to ANS members as the author of Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, number 20 in the ANS series Numismatic Studies, and as the Editor of the Colonial Newsletter. There was a reception after the talk and a subscription dinner followed.

At the Eastern Mediterranean Workshop focusing on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on May 16, four speakers addressed the participants. Wayne Sayles spoke on "Artuqid Coins Designed by the Restrains of Scission"; Emmett McDonald addressed "Byzantine Coinage in the Crusader Era"; Michael Bates presented "Ayyubid Silver Dirhams and Their Crusader Imitations: A Metrological and Metalurgical Study"; and Peter Lampinen explored "Crusader-Era Coins from the Excavations at Caesarea, Israel." The workshop met from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. and included an informal lunch.

July 18 was the occasion of the Society's annual Members Appreciation Day. The recipient of the Distinguished Volunteer Award was the Harry Bass Research Foundation which was represented by Doris Bass and who received a special edition of a volume describing the late Harry Bass's numismatic activities. Volunteers in various departments at the Society were recognized including Dr. Philip L. Mossman, Hyla A. Troxell, Ted Withington, Kenneth L. MacKenzie, David Jen, and Normand Pepin. The featured speaker was T. R. Fehrenbach a writer of both fiction and non-fiction who spoke on "Unmoneyed Texas."

The inaugural Harry W Fowler Memorial Lecture was held at the Society on September 26. Mrs. Fowler and several other family members attended the lecture and then joined other attendees for dinner. The guest speaker for this first Fowler Lecture was Dr. Frank Holt, a historian at the University of Houston, TX. Dr. Holt was a Graduate Seminar student in 1980 and since then is widely published in the fields of Bactrian numismatics and history. He spoke on "Every Coin a Mystery: The Quest for Ancient Bactria," drawing from nineteenth century writers and investigators including Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conon Doyle for inspirational techniques for investigative results. Following the lecture and a reception, the Fowler family members and Society friends had dinner together.