The Value of Money seeks to highlight the National Numismatic Collection’s diversity, richness, and unique strengths in the hope of inspiring renewed interest and new research trajectories related to its holdings. The collection is ripe for use by historians, art historians, anthropologists, and archeologists of countless places and periods looking for evocative sources for the study of money and economy and also for studies of politics, culture, society, and technology. The global nature of the collection offers the material needed for regional and comparative studies as well as research on connections between places and periods and the flows of money across geographic and political boundaries.
The potential to conduct research from an international or global perspective in one place is made possible by the individual and institutional collections donated to the Smithsonian over the last century and a half. The presence of so many individual collections makes it an ideal destination for research on the practice of collecting, with material that would aid in the development of a deeper understanding of who collects money with regard to age, gender, and socioeconomic status, how individuals and institutions develop an approach to collecting, and what parts of the story of money remain uncollected or are uncollectible.
Indeed, digital technologies of money present a new challenge and opportunity for both collection and display. The shift from physical to digital transactions will require new and innovative approaches, and the National Numismatic Collection seeks to engage researchers in the development of new ideas. While working to collect the present and the future, both the digital and the physical, the National Numismatic Collection continues to document the past by partnering with individuals and institutions, building on areas of strength, and creating new areas of specialism.
The National Numismatic Collection has much to contribute to the Smithsonian’s mission to support the “increase and diffusion of knowledge,” mandated by its benefactor, the Englishman James Smithson. Experts in specialist areas of numismatics and researchers from across the humanities and sciences are encouraged to help enliven this powerful collection through individual and collaborative inquiry.