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When putting in a new exhibition called Genuinely Massive Cash, we—collections manager Jennifer and mount maker Laura—faced a amount of worries, generally mounting seriously significant objects. A single of the trickiest responsibilities we confronted was mounting 165 cash together to kind a gigantic Roman coin, total with the head of a Roman emperor.
Before we dive into that obstacle, here’s the context: Really Major Cash is a new exhibition featuring monetary objects from the Nationwide Numismatic Collection that was composed and designed with elementary-aged visitors in intellect. Collections managers and mount makers are a important element of bringing exhibitions like this 1 to lifestyle. Collections supervisors treatment for the objects in a assortment of strategies, which include cataloging and properly managing them. Mount makers create the constructions that safely maintain objects even though they are on exhibit. Creating a huge coin out of cash demands equally of these ability sets—and a large amount of tolerance.
With that lined, let us get again to these 165 Roman cash and what they have to do with getting truly massive. The cash we labored with were being chosen by the exhibition’s curators to stand for funds that is “big” in amount, relatively than sizing or denomination. These cash are just a part of a hoard of 563 cash from historical Rome. Roman emperors have been some of the to start with persons to put their faces on coins it was an important device to demonstrate people who was in electrical power. To have interaction younger website visitors, the exhibition staff made the decision to display screen the cash in an progressive way, arranging them so they shaped one—you guessed it!—really big coin. We had been psyched to acquire on this challenge, knowing that we would need to shell out several hours making ready, carefully sustaining exact information, and properly handling and mounting the objects.
The coins in this team represent 10 distinct rulers and are roughly 1,700 decades outdated. Numerous of them glimpse identical, but each coin is special since they were being hand struck and have seasoned varying amounts of dress in more than time. The coins are not bodily marked with a museum catalog number, but they every single have a variety that is recorded on their storage box and in the museum’s database. Producing absolutely sure that these catalog figures remained linked to the suitable coins was one particular of our most important jobs. To an specialist in coins and medals, it could be basic to read through the textual content on the coins, discover the mint mark, and distinguish these extremely very similar coins from each and every other. Having said that, in our approach of mounting and tracking, we had to assume cautiously about the deinstallation approach. We had to think that an individual with no numismatic experience could be the individual who will take these objects off display and places them back into storage. It might be unlikely that that would transpire, but it is very important to make the course of action as uncomplicated as achievable and not count on numismatic knowledge. Just in scenario!
To put together for this venture, Jennifer cataloged each coin in the museum’s databases, carefully noting its fat, diameter, thickness, place made (mint), and ruler depicted. She also photographed every single item to capture its one of a kind details. At the exact time, Laura commenced the time-consuming method of making pin mounts with two pliers and a miniature belt sander.
Just about every of the 500 pins applied in the display screen were bent at a ideal angle and then smoothed on the belt sander to do away with difficult edges (to secure the coin). The sanding also can help minimize the appear of the pin, which is crucial in mount-producing, as you are hoping to cover the mount and emphasize the item. Every pin mount was primed with an acrylic White Primer paint, then a faux complete to match the patina of the coins—which will help to cover the pins’ mounts, so all you see are the coins! The fake complete is protected with several coats of apparent Krylon acrylic spray paint to seal it all with each other and include a little bit of padding.
The panel that the coins would be mounted on was organized as well. The exhibition designer created an outline centered on an actual coin, which was then printed on fabric. The material was diligently wrapped about a layer of Ethafoam and Medex to make a steady foundation on which to pin the cash. At last we printed a whole-dimensions image of the outline to use as a map of the objects.
As Laura took a coin, a single at a time, and pinned it to the board, Jennifer recorded the placement of the coin and the catalog range. We designed a shade-coded program where by each individual ruler was a distinctive colour so it could be effortlessly located on the map and then on the board by itself. Laura commenced to mount the cash in the heart of the silhouette of the coin head, drawing on her previous knowledge with mosaic tile operate! She mounted each coin with a few pin mounts to secure it to the fabric-wrapped substrate. When the silhouette was concluded, she commenced to increase coins about the perimeter.
This silent time-lapse video clip shows how the workforce cautiously mounted all 165 cash on the screen.
We done mounting these objects in about a single and a 50
We’re fired up to welcome website visitors to the museum to see these and the lots of other objects in Seriously Massive Income!
Seriously Significant Income was generously created possible by Michael Chou, the Howard F. Bowker Numismatic Tasks Endowment Fund, and Monthly bill and Dianne Calderazzo, with additional aid from Jeff Garrett, Robert L. Harwell II, and John F. McMullan.
Jennifer Gloede is the collections supervisor of the National Numismatic Collection in the Division of Do the job and Business. Laura McClure is the museum mount maker and intellectual residence legal rights coach.
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