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ACE Promotes Ancient Coins for Education
 | By By Jack Trammell
September 17, 2007 |
In a day and age when there are chronic anxieties about attracting young collectors to the hobby of coin collecting, one organization has found a formula that results in meaningful numismatic connections with young people. Ancient Coins for Education, or ACE, is a non-profit organization that works primarily with middle school and high school students, and their teachers (both public and private), to promote education and cultural appreciation of the classics and the ancient world through the study of ancient coins. Amongst the many numismatic-related activities they facilitate, ACE places primary importance on putting real ancient coins directly into the hands of young people.
Formed in 2001 by a small core group of ancient numismatists who wished to bring the hobby into the classroom, ACE relies entirely on volunteers, many of whom are educators, including professors and researchers in college and university classics departments. The group's unofficial motto became, "Pone historiam in manus discipulorum tuorum," or, "Put history into the hands of your students." The organization relies on donations of coins, supplies, and other services, as well as cash contributions. As of 2007, the organization has put more than 50,000 genuine ancient coins in the hands of nearly 35,000 students and teachers in approximately 550 schools at all levels from Elementary to post-graduate, in addition to providing resources for their use and understanding, awards, and pieces for special uses. ACE actively promotes the hobby of coin collecting and an appreciation of history through presentations to groups of school students, sessions at education conferences, and through a network of interested coin collectors and classicists.
The primary work of ACE is accomplished through teachers. However, ACE provides much more than ancient coins for students; it also provides ideas, lesson plans, and resources for teachers to use in the classroom.
One recent example is a project that creates classroom archeological simulations. Students work with a simulated dig site and follow some of the basic rules of archeological recovery. This project was instituted precisely to use in a good educational manner those coins which are donated but which are unattributable.
Another ACE project facilitates ancient coin attribution, when attribution is possible. As many a collector of ancient coins has found out for him or herself, reading ancient Greek or Latin inscriptions on small, sometimes well-worn coins can be a tedious and challenging task, especially with no formal training in ancient languages. However, ACE has access to Latin teachers and Latin students and even some teachers versed in Greek, and a corps of experienced numismatists also stand by to help with hints and advice via e-mail. With some basic resources and guiding texts, many students can make some simple determinations about the age, ruler, theme, and date of the coins they are working with, and also learn about the science of attribution that can lead them into more complex and interesting numismatic areas of inquiry.
Other ACE projects include setting up school museums (displays set up with ancient coins and historical information for students to see), essay writing contests, new innovative "Image Contests" where students answer questions based on images of ancient coins and from ancient history (both of which reward winning students with ancient coins), and coin identification studies that teach specific historical lessons.
An important part of the programming ACE sponsors includes teacher awards to encourage and reward outstanding individuals who promote understanding of classic culture and history through their classroom instruction and use of ancient coins. In May of 2007, Scott Uhrick of ACE presented awards at the Trinity Pawling School in NY State -- one of six schools whose coin program was sponsored by the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild -- and whose Latin teacher Anne Pearson was voted "ACE New Teacher of the Year."
"I love that [ACE] brings the ancient and modern worlds together for education," says current ACE Director Zee Ann Poerio. "It was passion for education that drew me in and keeps all of us at ACE going."
One of ACE's largest programs, and arguably its most important one, is bringing real ancient coins into the classroom and putting them into students' hands. While ACE accepts monetary donations, it also solicits donations of "uncleaned optimal quality" ancient coins and bulk quantities of common, cleaned, collectable coins of lesser value.
Individuals interested in making donations, particularly ancient coins which are already attributed or potentially attributable, are welcome year-round to contact ACE by e-mail at ACEassist@comcast.net, or can obtain information from the ACE Web site at URL http://www.ancientcoinsforeducation.org. Potential cash donors should also note that PAYPAL is accepted.
Coins that are donated always end up directly in the hands of interested students. Recently, I taught a 90 minute lesson on attributing Roman coins to a group of ancient history students in the Classics Department at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. The students used coins donated by ACE as part of the exercise. The focus of the lesson was on learning some basic numismatic attribution skills. Some the students in the classroom plan on pursuing graduate school careers in the classics, and see ancient coins as rich and important windows into the past.
"For some students, the chance to touch something which actually comes from Rome gives the ancient world a reality it never had before. They touch, and they believe," says teacher Leslie Perkins of St. John's Country Day School, Florida.
ACE also considers itself an active organization and advocate for ancient coin collectors in general. Recently, ACE's involvement in the CPAC Cyprus hearings highlighted the organization's commitment to education and the promotion of cultural understanding through the study of ancient coins. ACE was active in lobbying the state department to protect collector and organizational access to ancient coins.
Potential restrictions on the movement of ancient artifacts, including coins, has many collectors gravely concerned that the hobby will be adversely affected. ACE is firmly committed to ethical guidelines and current legal regulations for the movement of ancient coins, but is firmly opposed to the much more restrictive proposed congressional regulations.
Opposition from coin collectors in general has been evident across the board, from private collectors to large museums, and within many other professional numismatic organizations. ACE stands in solidarity with efforts to keep the collecting of simple items like coins legal.
ACE also works regularly with classics organizations and departments at the postsecondary level. ACE members often present at educational and classics conferences, club meetings, and to individual classrooms working through these contacts. Poerio quotes Cicero: "Quod donum majus reipublicae offerre possumus,quam adulescentes docere et instruere?" which translates as: "What greater and better gift can we offer the republic than to teach and to instruct our youth?"
"ACE provides teachers with a tangible link to the past to use in the classroom. Ancient coins help teach the origins of money while incorporating languages through the inscriptions, and provide connections to ancient history, art, myth, and influence on modern coins. ACE's ancient coin program provides a wealth of information to teachers and students and that's the perfect gift."
Many coin collectors would agree!
Jack Trammell is assistant professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., and is an active coin collector and writer.
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