Ibero-American Numismatic Collection

The National Archaeological Museum’s Numismatics Department’s collection of coins minted in America is one of its most important collections, a key piece in a history shared for over three centuries and a common cultural heritage. The celebration of the Ibero-American Museum Year in 2008 was an excellent opportunity to begin placing this important heritage of such high historic and cultural value online, adding it to the initiative of developing Internet access to these collections.

The museum’s American coin collection comes to an estimated figure of over 7,000 pieces, the promotion of which was began in the framework of an international research project involving specialists from various Latin America museums. This project, in which Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Cuba have taken part to date, includes both coins minted in the colonial age and national issues by the various countries after their independence.

We present a selection of nearly 2,500 pieces here, including issues made by the different American mints between the 16th and 20th centuries. This inventory will soon be enriched with the successive addition of further material until the whole collection has been placed online.