Highlights from our collections
Our curated online exhibitions demonstrate the important role of ancient coins in Mediterranean history through the ACANS collection’s highlights.
Collections overview
Donated by: Dr and Mrs W L Gale
Contains: more than 2500 ancient coins.
The collection is made up of three main categories:
- the Greek cities of Southern Italy
- Roman Republican Coinage
- the coinage of the emperor Hadrian.
Additionally, the Gale Collection contains:
- a significant number of ‘pegasi’ coins from Corinth, its colonies and allies
- an extensive survey collection of coins minted in the names of Roman emperors and their families.
Donated by: Ron Hansen
Contains: more than 1000 Roman bronze coins.
The Hansen Collection is an impressively curated assortment of coins:
- originating from 24 imperial mints
- spanning more than five centuries.
The collection was designed to illustrate the complex patterns of changing reverse types on Roman bronze.
Donated by: former Macquarie University lecturer Dr Doug Kelly
Contains: more than 1100 ancient Greek coins, and a selection of Roman ones.
The Kelly Collection is particularly strong in the representation of towns and tribes in the Thracian Chersonese.
Among the collection are more than 200 hemi-drachms showing the forepart of a lion from a still-unknown Thracian mint that operated in the fourth century BC, a topic of special research interest of Dr Kelly.
This collection has been diligently catalogued by teams of Macquarie student volunteers and interns.
With funds donated by the family of Sir Asher Joel, ACANS has undertaken to create a collection of coins that shed light on the way numismatic iconography was used by states, rulers and towns in the Southern Levant to assert their individual identity.
The collection will serve as a valuable research asset as well as an important source of information for teaching. The collection brings together numismatic evidence from the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman eras.
Contains: more than 500 ancient Greek and Roman coins
ACANS acquires select coins for research and teaching purposes, with the assistance of:
- funds from the Gale endowment
- donations of ancient coins from our supporters.