Old Girl Amelia Dowler, who is Curator of Greek Coins at the British Museum, returned to KHS on October 14 to give a talk on the collection of coins at the museum. Amelia was speaking to KHS Latinists who were joined for the occasion by boys from Warwick School. Authentic bronze silver and gold coins from her handling collection were shown round, and members of the audience were invited to use a Greek/English alphabet to decipher the inscriptions.
Amelia made us all think about the origins of money, and about how trading
Girls examine Amelia's coins
was conducted prior to money being invented. The audience was surprised to learn that the museum’s collection, in addition to ancient coins, contains examples of money, including paper money, and even electronic money, i.e. credit cards, right up to the present day. They even have in their collection a Barbie Cash Register and Barbie Credit Card, which needless to say, is never refused!
Amelia’s intriguing talk earned a well-deserved round of applause. Classics teacher Miss Julie Dormer hopes to follow up Amelia’s presentation with a trip to the British Museum itself in order to view the whole of the Greek and Roman coins collection.
