While numismatics is often characterized as the collection of coins, it has more meaning and includes the much larger study of the means to pay for things and the exchange of goods.

In the past, cultures without money used the barter system to resolve debts. Prison societies use cigarettes as a form of currency. The Kyrgyz people used horses as currency and gave small change in lambskins.

See also

• History of Numismatics
• Modern Numismatics

Coin collecting has been in existence since ancient times.

Numismatics reached its peak due to the great demand for coins during the late Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance period. Coins were collected during this period by the European royalty and nobility. It is known that both Augustus and Julius, Roman Emperors, collected Greek coins.

The scientific aspects of numismatics are of recent origin. While the ancients occasionally preserved individual specimens for their beauty, they did not have formal collections. Petrarch is credited with having been the first collector of any note.

The importance of the study of all coins has been more and more recognized with the 19th century being the most proactive in building up national collections and in publishing catalogs.

In the twentieth century, the coins were seen more as archeological objects than as simply coins. After World War II, a project was launched to register every coin found within Germany. This has been done in other countries as well.

This period correspond to the time when coins were struck.

Their study serves the needs of collectors more than those of historical studies and it is a study often pursued by amateur collectors.

The focus lies more often on the research of production and use of money in historical contexts using mint records or other records in order to determine the relative rarity of the coins as they existed at the time of minting.

Mint-made errors, results of progressive die wear, mintage figures and varieties of coins are also interesting in this field of study.