Displays of money and medals at the British Museum, 1759 to 2022

Abstract

• The aim of this paper is to give a survey of displays of money and medals at the British Museum from 1759 to 2022. It takes as its starting point Joanna Bowring’s Chronology of Temporary Exhibitions at the British Museum (2012), which is, to date, the only published list of exhibitions displayed at the British Museum. It also draws on Barrie Cook’s The British Museum and the Future of Numismatics. Proceedings of a Conference Held to Mark the 150th Anniversary of the British Museum’s Department of Coins and Medals, 2011 (2011), which provides a concise history of the Department and its activities until 2011. It also considers the guides published by the Museum, particularly in the 1880s and 1890s, when separate guides to the coins and medals displays were produced.