Numismatic Archaeology of North America: A Field Guideis a book that sought us out. Almost Literally.

In Army chow halls across the country there's an expression:"Eat First - Taste Later". That's certainly a sentiment thatcarries weight at busy coin shows for your faithful CoinWeekeditors. And while we certainly do our best to take in all of thesights and attractions at each of the major coin conventions andauctions we attend throughout the year, it isn't until we getback to the office, process hour upon hour of footage and followup with friends and colleagues that we truly get a sense of whatwe just experienced.

Yet suffice it to say, from the moment we were introduced tothe book by the authors we were intrigued.

A flip through the 280+ page, lavishly illustrated bookrevealed not just the potential usefulness of such a volume -especially for metal detectorists - but also the book's narrativepoint of view, which was immediately apparent even though we werejust kicking the tires at first.

"Ok, I'm in," I said. And $50 later, I took my handsome copyof the book and tucked it in amongst my things at the CoinWeekbooth.

The book's introductory chapters describe the origins anddevelopment of scientific approaches to numismatics in Europe andhow American numismatics is different. Indeed, the United Statesremains a young country and our archeological history as it comesto money is much different than it is in the so-called "OldWorld". But the use of money on the American continent predatesEuropean settlement and the mixture of indigenous and invasivecultures presents researchers with a complex, often surprisingtapestry of monetary "stories". And it's the story that foundnumismatic material can tell archaeologists that forms the basisof this narrative.

The story of money in North America is a story of Spanishsilver and cowrie shells; of wampum, achum, commodity money andmoney of necessity; of silver and gold coins; of base metaltokens; of paper money, coupons, and scrip. It's also a story ofthe intermingling of moneys from faraway cultures and the talesthese transplanted stores of value tell us about how theseobjects were used here, when, and by whom.

It is in the capable telling of this story-written from theperspective of discovery-where Numismatic Archaeology of NorthAmerica succeeds as an anthropological narrative about moneyand its exonumic cousins. An unearthed Lincoln cent of recentmintage found a foot or two off of a nature trail may tell anobvious story of human activity in that given area, but whatstory does a trove of pre-Qing dynasty coins unearthed at aColorado dig site have to share? Or, for that matter, a cache ofVietnamese phan, yan and dong coinage from 1740-1883?

Numismatic Archaeology of North America: A FieldGuide
By Dr. Marjorie H. Akin, Dr. James C. Bard, and Kevin Akin 289Pages, Routledge. Softback. $50; Hardback $150

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First Read: Numismatic Archaeology of North America: A FieldGuide(www.coinweek.com/recent-articles-video/first-read-numismatic-archaeology-north-america-field-guide/)