The followings is a Press Release from the American Numismatic Society (ANS) announcing the establishment of the Andrew M. Burnett Chair of Roman Numismatics. The newly endowed chair was funded by an anonymous donor and is named in honor of Andrew M. Burnett. Dr. Lucia Carbone, Assistant Curator of Roman Coins and the scientific co-director of the Roman Republican Die Project, will be the first ANS curator to hold this endowed chair.
The newly endowed chair is named in honor of renowned numismatist, scholar, and ANS Board of Trustees Vice President Andrew M. Burnett and is funded by an anonymous donor.
The endowment for the Chair of Roman Numismatics will allow the ANS to strengthen its long-term commitment to the study and digitization of one of the largest and most important collections of ancient Roman coins in the world, ranging from the early Republican to the later Imperial and Provincial issues, and including the coins of the Byzantine period. The Burnett Chair Curator will oversee the continuing development of the critical online resources Coinage of the Roman Republic Online (numismatics.org/crro), Coin Hoards of the Roman Republic (numismatics.org/chrr), The Roman Republican Die Project (numismatics.org/rrdp), and Online Coins of the Roman Empire (numismatics.org/ocre), for which the ANS has received substantial development support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Andrew M. Burnett, of London, UK, has specialized on Roman coinage since he joined the British Museum in 1974. He later became Keeper of Coins and Medals, and subsequently Deputy Director of the Museum. He has been the President of the Royal Numismatic Society, the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, and the International Numismatic Commission. Dr. Burnett has been an Honorary Professor of University College, London, and is currently Chair of the Royal Mint Museum. An ANS Member since 1982, he was Visiting Scholar in 1982, and was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2013, serving as Second Vice President of the Society since 2017.
Dr. Burnett received his BA and MA from the University of Oxford, and his PhD from the University of London. He is author, co-author, or editor of more than 25 books and more than 100 articles and book reviews. They include Coinage in the Roman World (1987) andthe Roman Provincial Coinage series (1992, ongoing). He also has an interest in the history of numismatics, co-authoring Sir Thomas Smith’s On the Wages of the Roman Footsoldier (ANS, 2017), and recently publishing The Hidden Treasures of this Happy Island: A History of Numismatics in Britain from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment(2020). He has been honored by the Royal Numismatic Society, the Belgian Numismatic Society, the French Numismatic Society, and in 2007 he received the ANS’s Archer M. Huntington Award for excellence in Numismatic Scholarship, the Society’s highest honor. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 2012 was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen for services to the British Museum and to numismatics.
Dr. Lucia Carbone, Assistant Curator of Roman Coins and the scientific co-director of the Roman Republican Die Project, will be the first ANS curator to hold this endowed chair. Dr. Carbone first joined the Society in 2016, after receiving her PhD in Classical Studies at Columbia University.
Through her publications she has established herself as an expert in early Provincial coinage, with a specific focus on the Province of Asia (modern Turkey). Her first monograph, published in 2020, is entitled Hidden Power. Late Cistophoric Production and the Organization of Provincia Asia (128–89 BC), and deals with the impact of Roman dominion on the pre-existing monetary system of the province. Her forthcoming book, Coinage in the Roman Provinces before RPC. The R.B.Witschonke Collection, will offer insight into the complexities of Roman monetary and economic policy in the Mediterranean from the 2nd century BCE on.
An adjunct professor at Columbia University, Dr. Carbone has taught Roman numismatics, Latin, Greek, Roman history, and contemporary civilization at both college and high school levels. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of La Scuola d’Italia, an Italian international school based in Manhattan, and actively cooperates with the Italian consulate regarding the Didactic of Ancient and Modern Languages in the US.
“The ANS is deeply appreciative of the anonymous donor who chose not only to endow this important position at the Society and allow us to further the study of our magnificent collection of Roman coins, but also to name the endowment in honor of a truly great scholar, our Second Vice President Andrew M. Burnett,” says ANS Executive Director Gilles Bransbourg. “And we are doubly pleased that Dr. Carbone, a highly regarded and prominent scholar in this field, will be able to carry on and build on Dr. Burnett’s work, and, through projects like the Roman Republican Die Project, will enhance the ANS’s position at the forefront of digital humanities in the numismatic field.”
The American Numismatic Society, organized in 1858 and incorporated in 1865 in New York State, operates as a research museum under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is recognized as a publicly supported organization under section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) as confirmed on November 1, 1970.