Organisational Numismatics and its Future - Declining or Virtual?

Anthony Gilbert

To Set the Scene
Numismatics is a very specialised subject. Emanating from archaeology and the fine arts, it has to compete with the mass and the crass. Early collectors were the nobility, and then with the advancement of science, learning and the arts, the clergy were ideally placed to lead the hobby. With Britain beginning its expansion of Empire, the nineteenth century saw classicists.and the military adding more to the study of coins. Indeed, the first numismatic society, the Royal, was founded in 1836.
The enjoyment of numismatics on a local level really took off in the mid to late 1960's, when a new type of collector - the change checker - came to the fore. Victorian coins could still be found in one’s change, and pre 1947 sixpences and denominations upwards contained some silver. It was also the age of the silver boom. The coin press at that time contained advertisements for a plethora of proof coins and medals commemorating just about everything.
The 1970's saw the growth of metal detecting and the 1980's saw its successful organisation into responsible clubs and federations. The 1980's and 1990's have seen the decline of membership in coin clubs. This is probably because of decimalisation - suddenly the coins in your pocket became 'new', and thus little chance to make a 'find'. However, I consider that decimalisation is only part of the reason why organisational numismatics has declined. In the past quarter of a century education has changed. There has been a marked difference in emphasis in school curricula, especially in the way that geography, history and mathematics are taught; in essence a decline in structural-method, factual memorising, and learning by rote. New distractions have been provided by the explosion of successful media services - multi-channel television, video entertainment, computer games and sports. And now the Internet, a crossbreed of telephony and computing. Socially, the Internet is an extremely powerful medium and appears to offer limitless possibilities in every field of human activity.

Currently Organised Numismatics
So what, currently, is the pyramid of possible access to the hobby for the average collector?

Museums
The British Museum's Coin Room is the Mecca, and has vastly improved its accessibility and profile in the last 10 - 15 years, but mainly because it had to modernise its approach or risk being cut back in staff or even shunted off. Although for security reasons the Coin Room appears from the outside as a Bank vault, regular special exhibitions are put on show, and with the aid of a major Bank sponsor, a permanent coin gallery can now be visited.
Access to local museums and what they have to show is patchy, depending entirely on what bequests they have accumulated and whether the local curator is interested in the collection.

Congresses and Symposia
Generally lasting for between one and three days and spanning a weekend, I maintain that these gatherings are an excellent product and are not truly appreciated or attended enough by most collectors. There is the general type covering all fields, e.g. the British Association of Numismatic Societies'(BANS) annual weekend event held near Easter time and hosted by a member Society. BANS also organises an autumn weekend lecture course. Special events built around a particular theme are organised by the Royal Numismatic Society, the British Numismatic Society, the Token Congress and the British Art Medal Society.
These events are for knowledge promotion and exchange, workshops and socialising. As well as the talks on offer, a major benefit to the participant is the interaction with other collectors whom one would not otherwise meet. Priced to suit most peoples' pockets, and with other accommodation options possible, there is also the chance to build a small holiday around the event.

Coin Fairs
Coin Fairs are mostly one or two day events, and are obviously organised for the promotion of coin sales, thus they revolve around collector accumulation. However, the opportunity is there to meet and socialise with fellow collectors. Coinex, organised by the British Numismatic Trade Association (BNTA) is held in London once a year. The BNTA has also held regional fairs, e.g. Coinex North and Coinex Wales. The Cumberland Coin Fairs, organised by Simmons and Simmons, are held four times a year at the Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, London. There are many smaller fairs around the country which can be attended, sometimes combined with. stamps, postcards and banknotes.

Auctions
Twenty years ago, auctions were mainly attended by dealers. Now, more collectors are finding the time to attend in person. Evidently, auctions are held for collector accumulation either as an attendee, by post or now via the Internet. Christie Spink, Sotheby's, Baldwins, Phillips (Glendinings), and Dix Noonan Webb are the main auction houses. Sotheby's offers the facility to bid via the Internet. There are also some local auctions offering numismatic material, generally as part of a sale of antiques. Other dealers, e.g. Simmons and Simmons and B. Frank catalogue Mail Bid sales.

Societies
Societies usually meet monthly and on weekdays with a mid - summer and/or winter break. The two great Societies, the Royal and the British are more academic and esoteric, but they both offer the best range of talks available, whatever your interests, and need one mention that they are at the cutting edge of numismatic research and debate. Local Societies, as one would expect, tend to tailor their activities around the interests of their own members. Small Clubs also tend to hold their own auctions, social evenings, quizzes and general meetings, and thus are good for exchanging information, knowledge and socialising. Unfortunately, many face difficulties, usually declining membership or, if that has stabilised, a lack of critical mass to try new things. Specialist Societies appear to be doing well.Each one is organised in a way that suits its particular subject and spread of membership. Are the Specialist Societies a threat to the local Clubs? Possibly, but that would be an unfair statement, as I believe that the local Society's role in numismatics is as a stepping stone or nursery for people to progress to specialist interests or the great Societies.

BANS (British Association of Numismatic Societies)
Since its inception in 1947 and from humble beginnings, it has attempted, and with some success, to help and pull together the local Societies. Although properly constituted, its profile is low and sadly it is not generally known about outside of what I may call the higher echelons of numismatic academe and local Society organisation. It appeals to the travelling faithful and this is a pity, but it will always be so as long as the two great Societies are so dominant. BANS has always been a good friend to local Societies, after all, that is its raison d'être - publishing small works which would not otherwise be generally made available, and of course promoting its own Congresses.

Numismatic Retailers
Sadly, coin shops are few and far between, but this situation only reflects the level of commercial business available to the trade. Most coin dealers operate either postally or through Coin Fairs, or a combination of the two. Usually, coins can be viewed in shop premises in conjunction with other similar small collectibles.

Numismatic Literature
To the average collector, numismatic literature tends to be eclectic, but this is not necessarily so. The two major Year books produced by the two learned Societies are a mine of information. Any serious collector in any field would find himself needing to refer to their tomes. There is only one high street magazine - 'Coin News' which, in my opinion, is well presented and produced but more importantly, well positioned in its market. Other magazines have come and gone, notably Coin Monthly. It was packaged in a format to fit the jacket pocket, catering for the change-checker, the date-type collector and the silver proof 'investor'. The market changed but the magazine did not, and so it died.
Some dealers publish price lists within a magazine-type wrapper - e..g, Spink's Numismatic Circular and S & B’s Quarterly Bulletin. There are a few annual priced coin catalogues which are useful. Both Spink and Coincraft publish catalogues on UK coinage and Krause + Mischler of the USA publishes a fairly good catalogue on World coins. New books are forthcoming all of the time, in most of the specialist areas.

The Internet
Inchoate and fast developing, but at present chaotic and not universal. Presently good for basic information, news and articles, the Internet needs an uncomplicated, simple, fast, more secure commonality of its current nebulous structure to really succeed. No doubt this will arrive in the future.

The New Revolution - the Internet

Advantages
Will the Internet enhance rather than replace current Society meetings? I think that this could be true in other fields as well as numismatics when looking at the advantages of the Internet. In the main, the Internet appeals to two groups of people that Coin Societies need to target - the well-off and the young. As in the TV age, the Internet appeals to the couch potato, as the subject comes to you. However, unlike television, it is interactive as you can participate and contribute. But organisationally it is difficult for the Internet suits loners and people not living near to Societies.
Websites and e-mail facilitate membership of nationwide and international clubs. Websites have the ideal facility to promote interactive research and cataloguing, etc. at a faster rate and to a wider audience than the current process of meetings and snailmail. Eventually, nationwide specialist Societies that meet up once or twice a year may discover that their communication requirements are greatly facilitated by e-mail, and thus demonstrate a new trend emerging whereby technology brings people ever closer together. Research into the more obscure and arcane areas of numismatics will become more possible, thus shortening publication times.
Links between numismatics and its educational value in a historical context are possible, which the British Museum site is tackling in its own way. In the collecting field of philately for example, there is already under way a multi-lingual (English/Spanish/French) site supported by UNESCO.
The Internet is dynamic and has the potential for a much wider audience,but is it likely to just appeal mainly to organisations and unorganised collectors? This situation would leave the local Society out in the cold.

The Downside
The Internet is at the Babel stage, with technology moving at such a fast pace, especially in regard to its interaction with telephony, that users' equipment quickly becomes out of date. As I see it the major downside is its lack of cohesion, but the well-off and the young are unlikely to be fazed by this. Surfing the Net needs to be more secure and trouble-free with telephonic line costs more transparent, but this will come. To state the obvious, one cannot physically meet up with people over the Net, but you can communicate more effectively with people whom one already knows.

Whereto Coin Clubs? - Technological Advance
As I have stated, back in the 1960's, with the onset of decimalisation, people began to examine their change more closely, keeping back any coins with a silver content. Will this fever return now that our own pound may disappear in favour of the Euro ? Technology has moved on apace in the past thirty years. We now use credit and debit cards and computer banking. Are we heading towards a cashless society ? If so, then coins would take on the role of curios. However, coin minting technology has not stood still. We now have bi-metallic and coloured coins and holograms on coins. Who knows what further developments lie ahead of us, perhaps a disposable or rechargeable coin with a built in chip set at a predetermined value. If coins become more like cards in their operation, then the hobby could survive by just changing direction. In this now fast moving world, change or die ?

The Way Forward
Coin Society meetings tend to be undynamic, save for competitions, quizzes and discussions. There is still a need for a venue where like-minded collectors can meet face to face and converse in a group. The Internet has no flavour and direction is difficult. However, the Internet will not go away and it cannot be disinvented; furthermore, its value should be recognised and utilised. In business, knowledge workers are in short supply, for indeed we live in the knowledge society. The Internet - friend or foe ? The former option has to be the way forward.
The future Club meeting may well consist of a portable TV screen with a mobile phone connection, whereby a talk could be called up or downloaded. Other Societies or groups could also be linked up for a real plus virtual meeting. Technologically, just about everything is now possible and within reach.
However, I think that the local Coin Society will continue to struggle to attract members. The social dimension of any Club will never be encompassed by many collectors. Perhaps the way forward is through the medium of the Congress and Symposium rather than the monthly meeting, The larger Societies will survive because of their sheer size and also their institutional support. Smaller Societies are the ones most at risk, so perhaps they are the ones that need to take the lead in incorporating what the internet has to offer.