Minutes of the New York meeting

Minutes of the Meeting of the British Numismatic Society, held at The InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel, New York, on Friday, 13 January 2023, Peter Preston-Morley, Secretary, being in the chair and 28 other people present.

The Secretary welcomed those present to this, the sixth meeting of the Society in New York, staged with the assistance of Paul Russell, chairman of the New York International Numismatic Convention, and Lianna Spurrier, creative director of Numismatic Marketing.

John Kraljevich then read a paper entitled We owe allegiance to no crown: the War of 1812 in American and British medals.

The Chairman concluded by thanking those who attended and looked forward to welcoming them to the Society's next New York meeting, provisionally scheduled for 12 January 2024.

Our next meeting

For the Society's second meeting this month we meet at our new London venue, the Society of Antiquaries of London, next Monday, 23 January, at 6.15pm GMT.

Our speaker is Jennifer Adam, Curator at the Bank of England Museum, and the title of her talk is Slavery and the Bank: the Bank of England's links with transatlantic slavery. Her work involves research and caring for numismatic, art and social history collections, in order to link their stories to people's lives today through displays and exhibitions. Prior to joining the Bank of England Jennifer worked at the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum.

Jennifer curated the Bank's current exhibition which explores its links to transatlantic slavery in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, which showed the public desire for institutions to be open about their history and connections with slavery and colonialism. From its inception in 1694 the Bank was linked to the likes of the Royal Africa Company and, 80 years later, loaned a large sum of money to the owners of two sugar plantations in Grenada. The owners defaulted on the loan and the Bank eventually bought them out and came into sole possession of the plantations and their enslaved workforces in the late 1780s. The Bank then sold the plantations to the West India merchant James Baillie for £100,000 in 1790.

The SAL is located at Burlington House, on the north side of Piccadilly, opposite the Fortnum & Mason department store. Proceed through the archway leading to the House and the SAL is on the ground floor of the west wing of the building, at the far end of the courtyard, entered through a pair of brown doors.

The nearest Underground stations are Piccadilly Circus and Green Park, both 5 minutes' walk away. Those attending meetings in person will be required to sign the SAL's Visitors' Book.

If you are in London that day we look forward to your company, otherwise please join us on Zoom. To join the meeting online, members have been emailed the log-in instructions.If you are using the desktop version of Zoom, please ensure that you are using the most up-to-date version before joining us. The meeting itself will commence with formal business at 6.15pm and the lecture will begin immediately after that.