The American Numismatic Society (ANS) has released the latest episode of its popular podcast, The Planchet. In the fifth episode of the fourth season of the podcast, Host Andrew Reinhard interviews the eight participants of the 2023 Eric P. Newman graduate summer seminar cohort. The cohort went through eight weeks of courses taught by the ANS staff and guest lectures.
For over half a century, The American Numismatic Society, a scholarly organization and museum of coins, money, and economic history, has offered select graduate students and junior faculty the opportunity to work hands-on with its preeminent numismatic collections. With over three-quarters of a million objects, the collection is particularly strong in Greek, Roman, Islamic, Far Eastern, and US and Colonial coinages, as well as Medallic Art. Located in New York City’s SoHo district, the Society also houses the world’s most complete numismatic library.
The rigorous eight-week course, taught by ANS staff and guest lecturers introduces students to the methods, theories, and history of the discipline. In addition to the lecture program, students will select a numismatic research topic and, utilizing ANS resources, complete a paper while in residence. The Seminar is intended to provide students of History, Art History, Textual Studies, Archeology, and Digital Humanities, who have little or no numismatic background, with a working knowledge of a body of evidence that is often overlooked and poorly understood.
In 2022, the Planchet began an annual tradition of meeting with the summer cohort to learn more about their individual backgrounds and interests, how they discovered the Seminar, and their projects. Host Andrew Reinhard had the privilege to speak in person with the eight participants and their visiting faculty adviser.
The American Numismatic Society launched The Planchet in 2020 and it is available to the public. It does not require a membership to the ANS to enjoy. If you are interested in becoming a member of the ANS, you can check out the details here.
To sign up to receive this new podcast, open up your favorite podcast app and search for “The Planchet”. It is available on a wide range of platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, and Spotify. You can also listen to it via a web player on the ANS site. On the site, you can also listen to previous episodes of the podcast or you can get them through your favorite podcasting app on Android and iOS. Once you add the podcast to your podcast app, you can easily go back and listen to all the previous years and episodes of The Planchet. Those episodes cover a wide range of topics and have in-depth interviews with key figures within the Numismatic community.
If you are looking for other coin-collecting-related podcasts, check out this Mail Bag post outlining some of the ones that I listen to here at USCoinNews.com.
For those unfamiliar, Eric P. Newman (1911-2017) was a lifelong numismatist who collected and wrote widely, with publications appearing from 1941 to 2014. Eric and Evelyn Edison Newman (1920-2015) traveled the world together and were active in St. Louis cultural and philanthropic affairs. Newman was an attorney by trade and worked for Edison Brothers Stores from 1944 to 1987.
Editors Note: Clinton, the Editor, and Owner of USCoinNews, is a member of the American Numismatic Society.