By Sonia E. Suben ’25

Over summer of 2024 and the 2024–2025 academic year, I have been providing collection management services for the Byzantine and Roman coins housed in the Blick-Harris Study Collection. This began with a research project completed as part of the Summer Scholars program in summer of 2024, under the direction of Professor Hostetler. This research project was based on several 12th century Byzantine coins in the BHSC. In addition to researching the unique iconography of Orthodox saints on these coins, I created online object catalogs for them on the VRC website. Such object catalogs include basic physical information such as diameter, weight (in grams), and condition reports, which document the wear and physical state of the object as it appears at that time. My object reports also included more involved information derived from the various editions of the Dumbarton Oaks catalogs (full title: Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection) housed by the VRC. These provide a chronological picture of the development of Byzantine coinage during the reigns of various emperors and dynastic families, divided by reign. Using these as a resource, I was able to develop a more comprehensive picture of each coin, including the coin’s metal content, mint date, mint location, inscription, and iconographic details.

The VRC was not my first exposure to a large coin collection. In summer of 2023, I partook in a coin data collection project in an internship at the American Numismatic Society (ANS) in New York, NY. In this experience, I made use of the DOC, as well as the catalogs of several other major numismatic collections held in the ANS’ library, including those of the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. My work at the VRC allowed me to hone the skills that I began developing in my summer internship, while also adding new skills such as the use of Digital Commons (the VRC’s collection management software), Adobe Lightroom, and Fujifilm photography, expanding the number of skills I have to advertise on a resume or in a cover letter in my post-grad job search. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to continue earlier work and research that was given to me by the various research, professional, and educational offerings in the VRC. In addition to publishing over a dozen complete object reports for previously unpublished coins in the BHSC, I also presented my collection research at the College Art Association’s 113th annual conference in New York City in February 2025. Taking on a collections role as a VRC assistant has opened so many doors for me, including introducing me to a line of work that I greatly enjoy and am very passionate about.

Sonia E. Suben
Class of 2025
Anthropology major with minors in Art History and Classics