Luca Andrea got to work with coins at the Teylers Museum: ‘By looking at the object, you discover new stories’
A paper during her master's degree put student Luca Andrea on the trail of Roman coins. While on an internship at the Teylers Museum, she organised the coin collection and came across some fascinating stories. 'Coins have had all kinds of functions.'
In the first semester of her research master's programme, Luca wrote an article about Roman Mauretania between 25 BC and 40 AD. This area, which covers present-day Morocco and parts of Algeria, was ruled by client kings appointed by Emperor Augustus. In theory, they were subordinate to him, but the coins from that area told a different story, Luca discovered. ‘King Juba II sometimes had a temple of Augustus placed on a coin to show his subordination, but he also used other symbolism to present himself as a legitimate Hellenistic and indigenous monarch, thereby exploring the boundary between dependence and autonomy,’ she explains. 'His son Ptolemy took that narrative a step further, which ultimately led to Emperor Caligula having him murdered. I found it incredibly interesting to realise that coins were used as a kind of ancient propaganda tool.'
Coin classification
When her numismatics lecturer shared a vacancy for an internship at the Teylers Museum's coin and medal collection six months later, she didn't have to think twice. Luca: 'With two bachelor's degrees and half a research master's degree under my belt, I was ready to gain some practical experience. I wanted to work in an organisation and see how research is applied in practice.'
In the case of the Teylers Museum, that means classifying. The coin collection was last annotated with minimal descriptions in the nineteenth century and has not yet been processed in one of the online databases that link collections together. ‘If you describe what is on a Roman coin accurately, you can deduce who made the coin and when,’ Luca explains. 'By supplementing a description such as “woman looking to the left” with “Venus”, I have made the coins easier to find. Permalinks can then be used to link all finds of one type, making them available online for research. I am quite chaotic by nature, so it was also a good learning experience for me to work so precisely for a while.'
Searching for stories
Among all the coins that need to be catalogued, Luca occasionally comes across some unusual specimens. ‘My studies focused mainly on categorising coins, but in the museum they look at the object itself in much more concrete terms,’ she explains. ‘What is the metal composition? Was the coin cast or minted? Holding the object in your hands immediately makes you look at these objects in a different, less theoretical way.’
One of Luca's discoveries is a coin with an image of Antonia Minor with a cut across her neck, as if she had been beheaded. 'She was very popular, so it's unlikely that anyone harboured any ill will towards her. When I looked further, I discovered that many of these mutilated portraits have been found in the north of the Roman Empire. They seem to have had a religious function. I have now written an article about this for a popular science magazine, partly because stories like this help to make sometimes rather dry coin collections more appealing to the public.’
Working for the Foreign Office?
Luca hopes to graduate this year. ‘First, I'm going to do some research in Morocco for my thesis. Since writing that paper on the coins there, my interest in that area has only grown. After that, I would like to work as a foreign policy officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, preferably focusing on North Africa. During my studies, I learned to think critically and analytically, and, especially when it comes to ancient history, you sometimes have to be a little creative because you have fewer sources at your disposal than in later periods. Combined with my knowledge of the area, I think these are all qualities that would come in handy in that position.’