Numismatic collections present distinctive challenges. Typically stored in trays within cabinets, coins, medals and tokens are easy to locate. However, from a conservation perspective, such storage can see large portions of a collection unexamined for years.
For ancient coins, cool vault storage is considered best practice, yet such conditions may not suit all objects. Modern proof coins, for example, can suffer chemical changes, with tarnishing or core metal migration altering pristine surfaces.
A further complication lies in storage itself: metals favour very low relative humidity, whereas the wooden cabinets used to house them require higher humidity to prevent off-gassing.
The key challenge is how thousands of varied objects can be safely stored and regularly assessed.
Digitisation offers one solution. High-quality images and records improve access for research, while providing benchmarks to detect gradual change, enabling preventive conservation.
The Money and Medals Network (MMN) provides training to enhance knowledge and ensure collections are well understood, cared for and shared with wider audiences.
Campbell Orchard is the project officer at the MMN; Christopher Gallacher is the coin digitisation officer at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford