![]() Following his lead, many European kings, princes, and other nobility kept collections of ancient coins. The Italian scholar and poet Petrarch is credited with being the pursuit's first and most famous aficionado. During the Renaissance, it became a fad among some members of the privileged classes, especially kings and queens. Ĭontemporary coin collecting and appreciation began around the fourteenth century. ![]() While the literary sources are scarce, it's evident that collecting of ancient coins persisted in the Western World during the Middle Ages among rulers and high nobility. According to Suetonius in his De vita Caesarum ( The Lives of the Twelve Caesars), written in the first century AD, the emperor Augustus sometimes presented old and exotic coins to friends and courtiers during festivals and other special occasions. It also seems probable that individual citizens collected old, exotic or commemorative coins as an affordable, portable form of art. Evidence from the archaeological and historical record of Ancient Rome and medieval Mesopotamia indicates that coins were collected and catalogued by scholars and state treasuries. However, the collection of coins for their artistic value was a later development. People have hoarded coins for their bullion value for as long as coins have been minted.
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