Collecting coins led me into doing displays for The Vancouver Centennial Museum (now the Vancouver Museum). It is located in Vanier Park, right across the parking lot from the Vancouver Community Music School where I was taking viola lessons. I had been told that there was a Chinese coin collection in the museum, and I went over there to take a look after lessons one day. The assistant curator at the time, Carol Mayer, showed me the collection, and, noticing my enthusiasm as well as some "expertise", twisted my arm and got me to volunteer some time to catalogue the collection.
When most of the collection had been catalogued, I cut my left hand, right along a thumb tendon sheath. I could not play for several months. The Museum decided to do a large display about money, and I was hired to be the curator- to choose the pieces to display, to write the text, and to decide on illustrations. I ended up with a 36 case display, with 1080 pieces of coins and paper money. Each case had text- an overview, detailed descriptions of the pieces displayed, a related illustration, and often a map showing the area being illustrated.
The display started with how coins are made, and then proceeded from China to Japan to India to Russia to Germany, France, Great Britain, and then to Canada, and closed with a section on forgeries and frauds. The display used materials mostly from the museum's own collection, and was supplemented by material from my collection, a local minting facility, and the Vancouver Police Department. I was told by some long-time collectors that it was the best display to be done in Canada on world coins, until the opening of the Bank of Canada Museum Collection in Ottawa. Not bad for a person who is collecting coins, having fun, and gathering knowledge.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment