The Journey Continues

The final chapter emphasizes that numismatics may be one of the oldest fields of humanistic inquiry, but it is still evolving in step with other, more modern disciplines. Researchers today want to know more about the non-elites of history, the nameless masses whose lives made possible the celebrated deeds of kings, queens, and emperors. Coins may seem particularly unsuited to this task since they are state-sponsored ego-facts bearing the names, faces, and boasts of the rich and famous. Cognitive numismatics, however, provides a new way of seeing in coins the common people—how they worked, what they thought, when they had a bad day. This approach brings the reader back to meme theory within the busy confines of an ancient mint. It completes the life cycle of a coin by examining its removal from circulation as an economic instrument, perhaps ending its journey as some other artifact of everyday experience.