I clearly remember my first International Numismatic Congress in Berlin. Only those who wore their congress badge could use public transport for free and enjoyed free admission to museums. Therefore, everyone wore their badge. All of a sudden, you could see how many numismatists were roaming around Berlin. For me, who was rather known as the exotic one in my group of friends, this was an incredible experience. To this day, I am still friends with people whom I first met during that long-gone INC. After all, there’s no place where networking is easier, where you can make friends quicker than in a community of like-minded people. That’s why I recommend everyone who’s interested in numismatics and who wants to hear it to attend every International Numismatic Congress. It’s worth it – for every single person and for numismatics as a whole!
A Bumpy Planning Process
When the INC starts on 11 September 2022 at 3 p.m., the organisers will give a sigh of relief. After all, no one in Taormina could have imagined the nail-biter that preceded this INC. First, there was Covid and the great uncertainty. Technically, Alek Bursche and his team weren’t affected by this. After all, the congress wasn’t scheduled until 2021. Nevertheless, they wisely and extremely early decided to deal with this unpredictable situation by postponing the congress to 2022.
Then, the war in Ukraine started. It destroyed the many efforts of Alek Bursche to provide a meeting place for the West and the East at the INC. After all, Russia does not only consist of its government, but of many individuals, including some of the world’s best numismatists. They won’t be able to attend the congress now, no matter what their political views are.
Covid and the war in Ukraine discouraged some numismatists from attending the congress in person. They will have the opportunity to hold their lecture online and to hear all lectures on the internet. Thus, the XVI International Numismatic Congress will be the first INC to take place both in the real world and in the digital space.
Numismatists from Across the Globe
About 800 numismatists registered for this congress – not including accompanying persons. 750 of them will attend the congress in person. They come from all over the world. Here’s just a little sneak peak of the countries regarding authors whose names start with an A: Egypt, Germany, France, Greece, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Canada, Norway, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain…
You can attend presentations given by 574 speakers on 555 subjects. On four days, there will be 4 sessions each during which 7 events take place at the same time. As always, there is a disproportionately large number of lectures on antiquity. Out of the seven sessions, there are usually at least three events dealing with Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins, one, sometimes two, on coins of the Middle Ages and the Orient, and never more than one on coins of modern times, with modern times usually being defined as ending in the 19th century.
There are several round tables and lectures on the role of the internet in numismatics.
And one round table bears the telling title “Finding Common Ground in the Cultural Property Debate”. The title shows that the International Numismatic Congress in particular doesn’t understand itself as a representative body of fanatics but as a place where scholars, museums, dealers and collectors work together.
Sponsors of the International Numismatic Congress
This cooperation has existed for many decades. Among the speakers and participants are many who earned their everyday keep in the coin trade. And without sponsors from the world of the coin trade, it would probably have been difficult to organise such a gigantic event with so many receptions and meetings. As the main sponsor, Alek Bursche was able to attract the Samlerhuset Group, which has a very active department in Poland called Skarbnica Narodowa, quite early in the planning process. Künker is involved as a gold sponsor. Representatives of Künker will be present in the small numismatic exhibition centre throughout the whole congress. The IAPN, too, supports the INC – a long-standing tradition. As long as the Numismatic Survey was published as a book on the occasion of the congress, the IAPN financed the printing as well as the publication of the conference proceedings.
CoinsWeekly, too, decided to become a sponsor for the first time. And we will be present with our own table at the congress. We believe in cooperation and want to use this opportunity in Warsaw to find out once again how we can help others to promote their projects and how others can help us to realise our own projects. After all, the International Numismatic Congress is the place to be if you want to network, and that’s precisely what we want.
Join the Coin Scouts!
For example, under the slogan “Join the Coin Scouts”, we will be looking for exactly 100 participants to test our newly programmed app to gather numismatic addresses all over the world. In the next few years, we want to build up a numismatic directory that covers museums, coin shops, mints, numismatic sights, research institutions, associations and clubs. And not only in Western Europe or the US, but all over the world.
If you would like to know more about it, and if you want to see photos of the International Numismatic Congress, please visit the landing page that we created especially for the INC.
You can find all the details about the congress on the INC website.
In 2018, we published a three-part series about what you can see and experience in Warsaw in terms of numismatics: part 1, part 2, part 3.
So there’s just one thing left to do: look forward to the legendary Polish hospitality.
