About Us

The coin collection of the Archaeological Museum of Muenster University consists of around 10,000 objects covering all historical periods in antiquity: Greek coins (of the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods), coins of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, civic and provincial coins of the Imperial period. Byzantine and islamic material complements the ancient holdings. It is a teaching collection frequently used during University courses and represents an integral part of teaching ancient numismatics by providing first-hand experience to students, and to familiarize with subject related methodology.

We have a "young" collection with some very old provenances: The holdings in Münster go back to the initiative of Peter Berghaus (1919-2012), who was able to acquire Roman coins from Apostolo Zeno's (1668-1750) collection for the university in 1955/1956 and the complete collection of Greek and Roman provincials of Theobald Bieder (1876-1947) in 1956. You will soon be able to read about the beginnings of our collection in the forthcoming volume "Universitäre Münzsammlungen im deutschsprachigen Raum. Geschichte. Gegenwart und Zukunft".

Usually a representative selection of Greek and Roman coins is exhibited in the university’s Archaeological Museum. In addition there are also showcases on special topics such as "Alexandria Troas", "Mons Argaios", and "Peace on Roman coins", respectively, highlighting recent research by University staff on these regions and topics. The "process of ancient coin production" is illustrated by a selection of misstrikes.

Providing easier access to the public is a key element of our mission, which aims at the digitization of all our coins. More and more objects will be published in our online catalogue waiting to be discovered 24 hours and seven days a week, wherever you are.

 

Coin collection in the Archaeological Museum of Muenster University
Project management: Dieter Salzmann (until 2016), Achim Lichtenberger (from 2016)
Academic Staff and responsibilities and editorial: Katharina Martin
Programming: Jürgen Freundel, Ilmenau

It is a project in cooperation with the Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin: Coin database and online catalogue based on https://ikmk.smb.museum with shared data administration for the NUMiD-network and the semantic web.

With collaboration of David Biedermann (2011-2012), Paul Bochmann (2017-2018), Nike Elsbroek (since 2023), Hendrik Elvering (2016), Michael Fehlauer (2016-2017, 2021), Pauline Fehlauer (2022, 2024), Wolfgang Fischer-Bossert (2010), Luisa Goldammer-Brill (2016), Silke Hockmann (2016-2017), Stefan Hofer (2013-2015), Jessica Schellig (2019-2022) and many students in different numismatic courses.

Photography: Robert Dylka, Nike Elsbroek, Lianna Hecht, Pauline Fehlauer, Katharina Martin (documented in the object entry's print view)
Layout: Goldland Media
Maps: Goldland Media, Jürgen Freundel

The digitization is supported by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen Lippe (LWL) and the Friends of the Archaeological Museum (GEFAM e.V.)