Editing Numismatics (section)

{{short description|Study of currencies, coins and paper money}}
{{About|numismatics as an academic discipline|collecting|Coin collecting}}
{{Numismatics}}
'''Numismatics''' is the study or collection of [[currency]],  including coins, tokens, paper money, [[medal]]s, and related objects.

Specialists, known as [[numismatist]]s, are often characterized as students or collectors of [[coins]], but the discipline also includes the broader study of [[money]] and other means of [[payment]] used to resolve [[debt]]s and exchange [[good (economics)|goods]].

[[File:Coin collectors and enthusiasts by Yogabrata Chakraborty, 2022.jpg|thumb|Coin collectors and enthusiasts at an exhibition organized by the Numismatic Society of Calcutta, [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], in 2022]]
[[File:Indian numismatic items made of silver, photographed from a personal collection in West Bengal, India, dated July 27, 2024.jpg|thumb|Numismatic specimens from Ancient, medieval and British India, made of silver.]]
The earliest forms of money used by people are categorised by collectors as "odd and curious",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maurer |first1=B |chapter=Primitive and Nonmetallic Money |editor1-last=Yago |editor1-first=K. |editor2-last=Battilosi |editor2-first=S. |editor3-last=Cassis. |editor3-first=Y. |title=Handbook of the History of Money and Currency |publisher=Springer |pages=87–104}}</ref> but the use of other goods in barter exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating [[currency]] (e.g., [[cigarette]]s or [[instant noodles]] in prison).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gibson-Light |first=Michael |date=2018-06-01 |title=Ramen Politics: Informal Money and Logics of Resistance in the Contemporary American Prison |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-018-9376-0 |journal=Qualitative Sociology |language=en |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=199–220 |doi=10.1007/s11133-018-9376-0 |s2cid=254976793 |issn=1573-7837|url-access=subscription }}</ref> As an example, the [[Kyrgyz people]] used [[horse]]s as the principal currency unit, and gave small change in [[sheepskin|lambskins]];<ref name="Timeline">{{Cite book |last=Glyn Davies |url=http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/amser/chrono14.html |title=Chronology of Money 1900 — 1919 |year=1996 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-0-7083-1351-0 |access-date=2006-08-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060714171102/http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/amser/chrono14.html |archive-date=2006-07-14 |url-status=live}}</ref> the lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horses are not.{{dubious|date=January 2023}} Many objects have been used for centuries, such as [[Cowry|cowry shells]], [[precious metal]]s, [[Cocoa beans#History|cocoa beans]], [[Rai stones|large stones]], and [[Gemstone|gems]].