BANS Annual Congress 2013

Will be held at The De Vere Hotel, Greenwich, London

^5th to ^7th April, 2013

Host Societies : British Numismatic Society and Royal Numismatic Society

 

 

The Devenport House Hotel, Greenwich, was the venue for the 2013 National Numismatic Congress of BANS, the British Association of Numismatic Societies, staged over the weekend of 5-7 April. This was the second occasion that Congress had been held in Greenwich, previously the host in 1991. 

A total of 90 delegates from all over the UK, Ireland, the USA and even Australia enjoyed a warm welcome from the organisers, Kevin Clancy and Joe Bispham. In the organisation's Diamond Jubilee year it was wholly appropriate that Congress return to the capital and be co-hosted by the two British-based international numismatic societies, the British and the Royal. Set in the comfortable surroundings of a boutique hotel in the heart of the tourist attractions which make up central Greenwich, the Congress was blessed with an informal atmosphere and those who attended will long remember the occasion as a splendid event featuring lectures on a wide range of topics, for which those responsible should take full credit.

With no formal reception to open proceedings, delegates were welcomed by Nick Mayhew, who introduced the first lecture by Marion Archibald, herself one of the six surviving past presidents of the association, all of whom were happily present. Returning to her Scottish roots, Ms Archibald took a fresh look at the implications of the design of the ryal of Mary, Queen of Scots, in the light of work by previous scholars.

Moderated by Chris Comber, Saturday's first session opened, most appropriately, with Graham Dyer, another former BANS president, stepping back in time and re-examining the 1953 Congress, which was staged in Bournemouth some months before the association itself was formally constituted. This was followed by Philip Mernick, who examined the extraordinary output of the illiterate Victorian-era Thameside fakers, William Smith and Charles Eaton, whose works now grace a dedicated website.

Christopher Challis chaired the second session, which began with Stewart Lyon undertaking a masterly overview of the work that has taken place in the field of Anglo-Saxon numismatics since 1953 and the many people at the heart of it no longer with us - from Christopher Blunt, Michael Dolley and Elmore Jones to John Brand and Mark Blackburn. By way of complete contrast, the sculptor Raphael Maklouf espoused some very personal (and controversial) views of royal effigies on coinage, criticising and praising in equal measure the work of past designers and some of his contemporaries.

Sunday opened with John Rainey welcoming Robert Bracey to the podium for a most interesting and well-explained exposé of the coinage of the ancient city of Multan, down to AD 965 and its conquest by Halam bin Shayban, then Michael Lewis and Ian Richardson combined to take an alternative look at what comes out of the Thames foreshore. Keith Sugden took charge of the closing session, which saw Peter Clayton, president of BANS from 1982-6 and the Linecar lecturer on this auspicious occasion, taking an appropriately close look at the naval hero Lord Nelson and the way he was been portrayed on commemorative medals 200 years ago, contrasting that with images of him on modern commemorative coins. The programme concluded with the CNG Lecture, given by Chris Howgego, on the mint of Alexandria and the coinage of Roman Egypt.