This week I step out of my comfortable rut, writing about American numismatics personalities,and into the broad area of world numismatics. My topic is the man called the father ofnumismatic science.

In about 1960, my father bought a set of the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica from a neighbor. Theset is now in my library. It is not often that I get the opportunity to quote it. This listing has notimproved since 1911.

My father did not acquire the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia which provides additional informationon Eckhel. His father was Johann Anton Eckhel. After transcribing the above, I did not feel liketranscribing the entire listing from The Catholic Encyclopedia. I will include a few quotes.

This includes a later quote from Friederich Kenner:

Prior to Eckhel's work, coin collections were generally described in alphabetical order and withlittle historical context. Eckhel organized coins according to the cities, other than Rome, wherethey were issued. He organized Roman coins based on chronology.

The Eckhel system is now called "Eckhelsche Ordnung." In addition to the organization, Eckhelcorrected previous misattributions and identified spurious coins.

As with many first attempts, Eckhel made some errors in attribution. Numismatic science allowsfor corrections to be made as new information is developed.

If you wish to read Doctrina numorum veterum in Latin, it is available on Internet Archive. Isuspect that few readers of The E-Sylum will take the opportunity. I also suspect there were fewreaders of coin books in Latin when this was published in 1792. The series may haverevolutionized the organization of scholarly works, but they failed to popularize the hobby.

For their tenth anniversary in 1880, The Numismatic Society of Vienna commissioned a medal inhonor of Eckhel, The metal for the medal came from melted ancient coins. How many ancientcoins were sacrificed to make the medals?

In 1972, a side street was named for him in Vienna.

In 2015, from May 27 to 30, a conference was held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences,organized by Bernard Woytek and Daniela Williams. The conference featured 21 speakers.

Just two years ago in 2022, a book on Eckhel was published. Ars critica numaria, Joseph Eckhel(1737-1798) and the development of numismatic method. The book was compiled by BernardWoytek and Daniela Williams from the papers presented at the 2015 conference on Eckhel. APDF version of the book my be found at https://austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576_0x003da939.pdf

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JOSEPH ECKHEL A SUCCESS(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n30a23.html)
NEW BOOK: ARS CRITICA NUMARIA(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n38a03.html)