Minutes of the September meeting
Minutes of the Meeting of the British Numismatic Society, held at the Royal Philatelic Society London and over Zoom on Tuesday, 27 September 2022, Dr Screen, President, being in the chair and 32 other people present [19 in person, 13 on Zoom].
The minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2022 were approved.
NOMINATIONS: Charlotte E. Bacci (Gtr Manchester), Luke Mundy (Bristol) and Dr Courtney Reiko Nimura (Oxfordshire) were nominated for Ordinary Membership.
ELECTIONS: None.
RESIGNATIONS: Patrick Edward Berwick (Eire, 2002) and Alan Paul Hawkins (Oxfordshire, 1978) had resigned with immediate effect.
Dr Philippa Walton then read a paper entitled, Ritual or rubbish? The coins from the river Tees at Piercebridge in context.
The President then announced the date of the next meeting and closed the meeting.
Our next meeting will be in-person only: dress code applies
For the Society's next meeting we return, after a COVID-enforced period of absence, to the Travellers Club, a week on Tuesday, 25 October. It is the occasion of the Society's biennial Howard Linecar Memorial Lecture, which this year will be given by Bob Harris, Professor of British History at the University of Oxford, where he is a fellow of Worcester College. He has written widely on British politics, society and culture in the eighteenth century, and his latest book, Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century, was published earlier this year by Cambridge University Press. Prof. Harris's address is entitled Gambling and dreaming of wealth in eighteenth-century Britain.
The Travellers Club is located at 106 Pall Mall, SW1 5EP; the closest Underground station is Piccadilly Circus. The meeting will be held in the Club's Inner Meeting Room, on the ground floor, and will be an in-person only event.
The Club's rules mean that everyone who wishes to attend the meeting must advise the Society's Secretary up to 48 hours beforehand, as he in turn is required to supply a list of names to the Club. A quick email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is all that is required and will be acknowledged, so you know your name is on the Club's list. In addition, a formal dress code applies for admission to the Club. Gentlemen must wear jackets and ties; trainer shoes and denim are not permitted for either ladies or gentlemen. Please do not turn up on the day without advising the Society beforehand, as admission will be denied to anyone whose name is not on the list.
Attendees also have the option to dine at the Club that evening, for the price of £67.70 per person, plus wine. The menu is:
Smoked salmon with caper berries
Breast of guinea fowl à l’orange, with a selection of seasonal vegetables
Warm pear tart, vanilla ice cream
Coffee and chocolates
The vegetarian options for the starter and main course are:
Tian of Mediterranean vegetables with goat cheese, rocket salad with aged balsamic
Butternut squash risotto
All attendees wishing to dine must advise the Society's Secretary, as above, at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting and specify the vegetarian option if that is the choice of the applicant.
The meeting itself will commence at 6pm with a brief welcome to the Club by its former chairman, Sir John Wheeler, and Prof. Harris's lecture will begin immediately after that. Following the lecture our member Peter Mitchell has kindly sponsored a small drinks reception. At 7.30pm those attendees who have also signalled their intention to stay for dinner will be invited to move to the Club's Library on the first floor.
In the century before the defeat of Napoleon gambling was rife in Britain. Lotteries brought in vast sums to the Treasury and loosened the money pouches of rich and poor alike. Learn what it was like to lose a fortune in a day – and many did. If you have applied to attend the meeting we look forward to your company. If not, we hope to publish Prof. Harris's lecture in a forthcoming volume of BNJ.
This lecture explores why so many people gambled in eighteenth-century Britain. A major focus will be the lottery and its many derivatives, which proved extraordinarily popular. Roy Porter once characterized the lottery as representing the nationalization of gambling in eighteenth-century England, although it was only one, admittedly prominent, feature of a very crowded gambling landscape. The question at the heart of this lecture will be what we can learn, from gambling and the lottery in particular, about the character of British society in this period and about aspirations to wealth and independence.
BNJ 92 to be despatched at the end of November – tell us if you have changed your address recently!
It is anticipated that copies of BNJ 92 will be despatched to all fully paid-up members from the Society's mailing house in Milton Keynes, England, at the end of November. If you moved house within the last 15 months and haven't informed us yet, please let us know now so that your copy of BNJ reaches you safely: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Members whose subscriptions are overdue will be sent one final reminder this week.
October 22. 8th International Symposium in Early Medieval Coinage (Cambridge). t.abramson@
October 24. Heberden Coin Room Centenary: Past, Present and Future (Oxford). This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
October 25. Society meeting (London)
October 27-28. Martin Collection, Part II (Baltimore). stacksbowers.com
November 22. Society meeting (London)
November 23. Platt Collection (London). noonans.co.uk
January 13. Society meeting (New York)
February 8-9. Puddester Collection, Part I (London). noonans.co.uk
March 22. Silich Collection, Part I (London). noonans.co.uk
March 24-26. BANS Congress (Portsmouth). virginia.porter@