UK & Eire region

UK Section meetings

The UK & EIRE secretary is Marzbeen Jila ONSUKsecretary@orientalnumismaticsociety.org.

The Society holds meetings in London (British Museum) and Oxford (Ashmolean Museum) and online.

In the United Kingdom the society usually holds two study days each year at the British Museum, London, and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. For details contact Marzbeen Jila.

Past meetings

22 March 2025: Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (and on Zoom)

11.00 – 12.30
- Robert Bracey (British Museum) - The Ahmadabad Mint (Gujarat) from Akbar to the East India Company
- Ehsan Shavarebi (University of Vienna) - A Numismatic History of Barikot (Swat Valley, northern Pakistan)
12.30–14.00
- Lunch in Gloucester Green Market
14.00–15.30
- Timothy Cheuk Yin Chan (University of Manchester) - The Creation of the British Dollar and Anglo-Japanese Rivalry in the Far East, 1873-1895
- Joe Cribb (Hebei Normal University) - Machines for Making Coins and their Adoption in Asia

Members met for tea in the Museum Café afterwards.

ONS Study Day, Coin Study Room, Ashmolean Museum, Saturday 24th August 2024

Philip Attwood on Frank Bowcher, Medallist and India.
Joe Cribb on Artistic Degradation in Coins: A Numismatic Tool
Shailendra Bhandare on How Money Talks: Women Power.

After Lunch, members were invited by the lead Curator, Shailendra Bhandare, to view the recently opened major exhibition: MONEY TALKS: ART, SOCIETY & POWER.

2nd March 11.00–16.00 (GMT) at A. H. Baldwin and Sons Ltd.

Speakers:

Tong Yu (Hebei Normal University) A lost Qing dynasty mint and its coinage
Anthony Lee (Hong Kong) The history of the Hong Kong coinage
Shailendra Bhandare (Oxford) Currency of the Maratha Empire.
Cui Minghao (London) Chinese numismatists’ understanding of foreign coins: from ancient times to the 20th century

16th December 2023 at Spink and Son Ltd

11.30–12.00 Shailendra Bhandare, Ashmolean Museum: Early Buddhist Art in Deccan: Numismatic Underpinnings of Chronology and Political Backdrop
12.00–12.30 Vesta Curtis, British Museum: Parthian Coins – From Mithradates II to Orodes II (124–37 BCE)
2.00–2.30 Zhang Ruiqi, Hebei Normal University: Han emperor Wudi’s baijinsanpin – three silver coins (119 BCE)
2.30–3.00 Richard Morel, British Library: An introduction to Southeast Asian Paper Money Collections in the British Library
3.00–3.30 Ray Liu Ruiliang, British Museum: Mixing and recycling: a new perspective to interpret the chemical composition of Chinese coinage (copper-alloys and silver) (with Mark Pollard, Oxford University)
3.30–4.00 Joe Cribb, Hebei Normal University: Numismatic Evidence of the Kushans in Xinjiang (1st – 2nd century CE)

With many thanks to Spink & Son Ltd for their support of the ONS.

ONS Study Day, Coin Study Room, Ashmolean Museum, Saturday 13th May 2023

11.00 – 11.45 – Alessandro Magnani, University of Bologna: The ‘Roman’ coin of Kujula Kadphises – an issue for merchants
11.45 – 12.30 – Joe Cribb: A new Kushan inscription from Tajikistan and its bearing on coinage
2.30 – 3.15 – Shailen Bhandare: Satavahana silver coins – new insights
3.15 – 4.00 – Paul Stevens: Satavahana coinage in a new comprehensive database of Indian coins

22nd June 2019: ONS Study Day, Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Talks:

“Afghanistan: coinage during the transition to Islamic rule 690-750” – Joe Cribb, London
“Excavations an Indo-Greek Site in the Peshawar Valley: Spring 2019” – Dr Gul Rahim Khan, University of Peshawar
“Islamic Art and Coinage: Some Insights” – Shailendra Bhandare, Oxford
“Umayyad Gold Coinage” – Graham Byfield, London

11 August 2018: Study Day, Ashmolean Museum

Talks:

Shailen Bhandare, Oxford – The life of John Flaxman’s ‘Lion and Palm Tree’ in India
Joe Cribb, London – Some Kushan golden moments
Karan Singh, London – Lead coins of the Mitra kings of Punjab.
Paul Stevens. Great Missenden – Works in Progress: an Update
Gul Rahim Khan, University of Peshawar – Latest Archaeological Excavations at Hayatabad, Peshawar
Amol Bankar, independent scholar, Pune